LIBRARY 


University  of  California. 


Class 


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ARMENIA: 


A  YEAR  AT  ERZEROOM,  AND  ON  THE  FRON- 
TIERS OF  RUSSIA,  TURKEY,  AND 
PERSIA. 


BY  THE   HON.   ROBERT   CURZON, 

AUTHOR  OF  "VISITS  TO  THE  MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT." 


' 


Ruined  Armenian  Church  near  Erzeroom. 


MAP  AND  WOODCUTS. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

82    BEEKMAN    STREET. 

^3  1854. 

Of   TH£ 

UNIVERSITY 

Of 
£*UFORr^ 


S 


j^/- 


^fc-v**-*-*-*^ 


PREFACE. 


Almost  from  time  immemorial  a  border  warfare  has 
been  carried  on  between  the  Koordish  tribes  on  the 
confines  of  Turkey  and  Persia,  in  the  mountainous 
country  beginning  at  Mount  Ararat  toward  the  north, 
and  continuing  southward  to  the  low  lands,  where  the 
Shat  al  Arab,  the  name  of  the  mighty  river  formed  by 
the  junction  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  pours 
those  great  volumes  of  water  into  the  Persian  Gulf. 
The  consequence  of  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs  in 
those  wild  districts  was,  that  the  roads  were  unsafe 
for  travelers  ;  merchants  were  afraid  to  trust  their  mer- 
chandise to  the  conveyance  even  of  well-armed  cara- 
vans, for  they  were  constantly  pillaged  by  the  Koords, 
headed  in  our  days  by  the  great  chieftains  Beder  Khan 
Bey,  Noor  Ullah  Bey,  Khan  Abdall,  and  Khan  Mah- 
moud.  The  chains  of  mountains  which  occupy  great 
part  of  the  country  in  question  are  for  months  every 
year  covered  with  snow,  which  even  in  the  elevated 
plains  lies  at  the  depth  of  many  yards ;  the  bands  of 
robbers  constantly  on  the  watch  for  plunder  of  any 
kind  prevented  the  mountain  paths  from  being  kept 
open,  so  that  those  who  escaped  from  the  long  lances 
of  the  Koords  perished  in  the  avalanches  and  the  snow- 
drifts by  hundreds  every  year. 

To  put  a  stop,  or  at  least  a  check,  to  so  lamentable 
a  state  of  things,  the  governments  of  Turkey  and  Per- 
sia requested  the  assistance  of  England  and  Russia  to 


■  j  JL  ^  yj 


vj  PREFACE. 


draw  up  a  treaty  of  peace,  and  to  come  to  a  distinct 
understanding  as  to  where  the  line  of  border  ran  be- 
tween the  two  empires ;  for  hitherto  the  Koordish  tribes 
of  Turkey  made  it  a  virtue  to  plunder  a  Persian  vil- 
lage, and  the  Persians,  on  their  side,  considered  no  ac- 
tion more  meritorious,  as  well  as  profitable,  than  an 
inroad  on  the  Turkish  frontier,  the  forays  on  both 
sides  being  conducted  on  the  same  plan.  The  invad- 
ing party,  always  on  horseback,  and  with  a  number 
of  trained  led  horses,  which  could  travel  one  hund- 
red miles  without  nagging,  managed  to  arrive  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  devoted  village  one  hour  before 
sunrise.  The  barking  of  the  village  curs  was  the  first 
notice  to  the  sleeping  inhabitants  that  the  enemy  was 
literally  at  the  door.  The  houses  were  fired  in  every 
direction ;  the  people  awoke  from  sleep,  and,  trying  in 
confusion  to  escape,  were  speared  on  their  thresholds 
by  their  invaders ;  the  place  was  plundered  of  every 
thing  worth  taking ;  and  one  hour  after  sunrise  the  in- 
vading bands  were  in  full  retreat,  driving  before  them 
the  flocks  and  herds  of  their  victims,  and  the  children 
and  girls  of  the  village  bound  on  the  led  horses,  to  be 
sold  or  brought  up  as  slaves  ;  the  rest  having,  young 
and  old,  men  and  women,  been  killed  without  mercy, 
to  prevent  their  giving  the  alarm  :  their  victors  fre- 
quently coming  down  upon  them  from  a  distance  of 
one  hundred  to  three  hundred  miles. 

In  hopes  of  remedying  these  misfortunes,  a  confer- 
ence was  appointed  at  Erzeroom,  where  a  Turkish 
plenipotentiary,  Noori  EfTendi ;  a  Persian  plenipoten- 
tiary, Merza  Jaffer  Khan;  a  Russian  commissioner, 
Colonel  Dainese ;  and  an  English  commissioner,  Col- 


PREFACE.  vij 


onel  Williams,  of  the  Royal  Artillery,  were  to  meet, 
each  with  a  numerous  suite,  to  discuss  the  position  of 
the  boundary,  and  to  check  the  border  incursions  of 
the  Koordish  tribes,  both  by  argument  and  by  force  of 
arms,  the.  troops  of  both  nations  being  ordered  to  assist 
the  deliberations  of  the  congress  at  Erzeroom  by  every 
endeavor  on  their  part  to  keep  the  country  in  a  tem- 
porary state  of  tranquillity.  The  plenipotentiaries  on 
the  part  of  Turkey  and  Persia,  and  the  English  and 
Russian  commissioners,  entered  upon  their  arduous 
task  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1842.  Colonel  Wil- 
liams, to  whom  the  duties  of  the  English  commission 
had  been  intrusted,  was  too  unwell  to  proceed  to  Erze- 
room, and  I  was  appointed  in  his  stead,  being  at  that 
time  private  secretary  to  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  her 
majesty's  embassador  at  Constantinople.  Colonel  Wil- 
liams afterward  recovered  so  much  that  he  was  able 
to  set  out,  and  we  started  together  as  joint  commis- 
sioners, in  company  with  Colonel  (afterward  General) 
Dainese,  on  the  part  of  Russia,  a  gentleman  of  very 
considerable  talents  and  attainments.  The  discus- 
sions between  the  two  governments  were  protracted 
by  every  conceivable  difficulty,  which  was  thrown  in 
the  way  of  the  commissioners  principally  by  the  Turks. 
At  length,  in  June,  1847,  a  treaty  was  signed,  in 
which  the  confines  of  the  two  empires  were  denned : 
these,  however,  being  situated  in  places  never  survey- 
ed, and  only  known  by  traditional  maps,  which  had 
copied  the  names  of  places  one  from  another  since  the 
invention  of  engraving,  it  was  considered  advisable 
that  the  true  situations  of  these  places  should  be  ver- 
ified in  a  scientific  manner  ;  consequently,  a  new  com- 


vijj  PREFACE. 


R 


mission  was  named  in  the  year  1848,  whose  officers 
were  instructed  to  define  the  actual  position  of  the  spots 
enumerated  in  the  treaty  above  mentioned.  These 
commissioners  consisted  of  Dervish  Pasha  for  Turkey, 
Merza  JafFer  for  Persia,  Colonel  Williams  for  England, 
and  Colonel  Ktchirikoff  for  Russia. 

This  party  left  Bagdad  in  1848,  surveyed  the  whole 
of  that  hitherto  unexplored  region,  among  the  Koordish 
and  original  Christian  tribes,  which  extends  to  the  east 
of  Mesopotamia,  till  they  finished  their  difficult  and 
dangerous  task  at  Mount  Ararat,  on  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1852.  The  results  of  this  expedition  are,  I 
hope,  to  be  presented  to  the  public  by  the  pen  of  Colonel 
Williams,  and  will,  I  trust,  throw  a  new  and  interest- 
ing light  upon  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  wild 
mountaineers  of  those  districts,  and  give  much  infor- 
mation relating  to  the  Chaldeans,  Maronites,  Nestori- 
ans,  and  other  Christian  Churches  converted  in  the 
earliest  ages  by  the  successors  of  the  Apostles,  of  whom 
we  know  very  little,  no  travelers  hitherto  having  had 
the  opportunities  of  investigating  their  actual  condition 
and  their  religious  tenets  which  have  been  afforded  to 
Colonel  Williams  and  the  little  army  under  his  com- 
mand. 

Armenia,  the  cradle  of  the  human  family,  inoffensive 
and  worthless  of  itself,  has  for  centuries,  indeed  from 
the  beginning  of  time,  been  a  bone  of  contention  be- 
tween conflicting  powers :  scarcely  has  it  been  made 
acquainted  with  the  blessings  of  tranquillity  and  peace, 
through  the  mediation  of  Great  Britain,  than  again  it 
is  to  become  the  theatre  of  war,  again  to  be  overrun 
with  bands  of  armed  men  seeking  each  other's  destruc- 


PREFACE.  ix 


tion,  in  a  climate  which  may  afford  them  burial  when 
dead,  but  which  is  too  barren  and  inhospitable  to  pro- 
vide them  with  the  necessaries  of  life  ;  and  this  to  sat- 
isfy the  ambition  of  a  distant  potentate,  by  whose  suc- 
cess they  gain  no  advantage  in  this  world  or  in  the 
next. 

It  is  much  to  be  deplored  that  the  Emperor  of  Rus- 
sia, by  his  want  of  principle,  has  brought  the  Christian 
religion  into  disrepute ;  for  throughout  the  Levant  the 
Christians  have  for  years  been  waiting  an  opportunity 
to  rise  against  the  oppressors  of  their  fortunes  and  their 
faith.  The  manner  in  which  the  Czar  has  put  himself 
so  flagrantly  in  the  wrong  will  be  a  check  to  the  prog- 
ress of  Christianity.  That  the  step  he  has  now  been 
taking  has  been  the  great  object  of  his  reign,  as  well 
as  that  of  all  his  predecessors  since  the  time  of  Peter 
the  Great,  will  be  illustrated  in  the  following  pages. 

The  accession  of  a  Christian  emperor  to  the  throne 
of  Constantinople  will  be  an  event  of  greater  conse- 
quence than  is  generally  imagined  ;  for  the  Sultan  of 
Roum  is  considered  by  all  Mohammedans  in  India,  Af- 
rica, and  all  parts  of  the  world,  to  be  the  vicegerent  of 
God  upon  earth,  and  the  Caliph  or  successor  of  Moham- 
med ;  his  downfall,  therefore,  would  shatter  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  Mohammedan  faith,  for  the  Sultan  is  the 
pride  and  glory  of  Islam,  and  the  pale  Crescent  of  the 
East  will  wane  and  set  when  Kurie  Eleison  is  chanted 
again  under  the  ancient  dome  of  St.  Sofia. 

What  an  unfortunate  mistake  has  been  made  in  not 
waiting  for  a  real  and  just  occasion  for  pressing  for- 
ward the  ranks  of  the  Cross  against  the  Crescent! 
Then  who  would  not  have  joined  a  righteous  cause  ? 
A2 


PREFACE. 


who  would  not  have  given  his  wealth,  his  assistance, 
or  his  life,  in  the  defense  of  his  faith  against  the  ene- 
mies of  his  religion  ? 

I  feel  that,  in  laying  this  little  hook  before  the  pub- 
lic, I  am  committing  a  rash  act,  for  I  am  perfectly- 
aware  that  it  has  many  imperfections.  I  was  prevent- 
ed from  visiting  several  important  places  in  Armenia 
by  an  illness  so  severe,  brought  on  by  the  unhealthy 
climate,  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  take  an  active 
part  in  life  since  that  time.  The  following  pages  were 
written  in  a  very  few  days,  at  a  time  when  other  oc- 
cupations prevented  me  from  giving  them  that  atten- 
tion which  should  always  be  afforded  to  a  work  that  is 
intended  for  the  perusal  of  the  public. 

Nevertheless,  I  consider  that,  as  the  countries  de- 
scribed are  so  little  known,  and  as  it  is  not  improbable 
that  events  of  great  importance  may  take  place  within 
their  boundaries,  I  should  be  open  to  greater  blame  in 
withholding  any  information,  however  humble,  than  in 
presenting  to  the  reader  a  meagre  account  of  those  wild 
and  sterile  regions,  whose  climate  and  manners  are  so 
different  from  those  which  are  generally  described  in 
the  works  of  Oriental  travelers. 

These  sketches,  slight  as  they  are,  may  perhaps  be 
found  useful  to  the  members  of  any  expedition  which 
the  chances  of  war  may  occasion  to  be  sent  into  those 
remote  countries,  by  giving  them  beforehand  some  inti- 
mation of  the  preparations  necessary  to  be  made  for 
their  journey  through  a  district  where  they  would  en- 
counter at  every  step  difficulties  which  they  might  not 
have  been  led  to  expect  in  a  latitude  considerably  to 
the  south  of  the  Bay  of  Naples. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  "Bad  Black  Sea."  —  Coal-field  near  the  Bosporus.  —  Trebizond 
from  the  Sea. — Fish  and  Turkeys. — The  Bazaars. — Coronas. — An- 
cient Tombs. — Church  of  St.  Sofia. — Preservation  of  old  Manners 
and  Ceremonies. — Toilet  of  a  Person  of  Distinction. — Russian  Loss 
in  1828-9. — Ancient  Prayer. — Varna. — Statistics  of  Wallachia. — 
Visit  to  Abdallah  Pasha. — His  outward  Appearance. — His  love  of 
medical  Experiments. — Trade  of  Trebizond Page  17 

CHAPTER  II. 

Departure  from  Trebizond. — A  rough  Road. — Turkish  Pack-horses. — 
Value  of  Tea. — The  Pipe  in  the  East. — Mountain  Riding. — Instinct 
of  the  Horse. — A  Caravan  overwhelmed  by  an  Avalanche. — Mount- 
ahrof  Hoshabounar. — A  Ride  down  the  Mountain. — Arrival  at  Erze- 
room   35 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Consulate  at  Erzeroom. — Subterranean  Dwellings. — Snow-blind- 
ness. —  Effects  of  the  severe  Climate.  —  The  City  :  its  Population, 
Defenses,  and  Buildings. — Our  House  and  Household. — Armenian 
Country-houses. — The  Ox-stable , 45 

CHAPTER  IY. 

Narrow  Escape  from  Suffocation. — Death  of  Noori  Effendi. — A  good 
Shot. — History  of  Mirza  Tekee. — Persian  Ideas  of  the  Principles  of 
Government. — The  "  Blood-drinker." — Massacre  at  Kerbela. — Sanc- 
tity of  the  Place. — History  of  Hossein. — Attack  on  Kerbela,  and 
Defeat  of  the  Persians. — Good  Effects  of  Commissioners'  Exer- 
tions    61 


xij  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

The  Boundary  Question. — Koordish  Chiefs. — Torture  of  Artin,  an 
American  Christian. — Improved  State  of  Society  in  Turkey. — Ex- 
ecution of  a  Koord.  —  Power  of  Fatalism.  —  Gratitude  of  Artin's 
Family Page  81 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Clock  of  Erzeroom. — A  Pasha's  Notions  of  Horology. — Pathology 
of  Clocks. — The  Tower  and  Dungeon. — Ingenious  Mode  of  Torture. 
— The  modern  Prison 99 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Spring  in  Erzeroom. — Coffee-house  Diversions. — Koordish  Exploits. 
— Summer  Employment. — Preparation  of  Tezek. — Its  Varieties  and 
Uses 105 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Prophet  of  Khoi. — Climate. — Effects  of  great  Elevation  above 
the  Sea. — The  Genus  Homo.— African  Gold-diggings. — Sale  of  a 
Family. — Site  of  Paradise. — Tradition  of  Khosref  Purveez. — Flow- 
ers.— A  Flea-antidote. — Origin  of  the  Tulip. — A  Party  at  the  Cave 
of  Ferhad,  and  its  Results. — Translation  from  Hafiz 110 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Bear. — Ruins  of  a  Genoese  Castle. — Lynx. — Lemming. — Cara 
Guz. — Gerboa. — Wolves. — Wild  Sheep. — A  hunting  Adventure. — • 
Camels. — Peculiar  Method  of  Feeding. — Degeneration  of  domestic 
Animals 125 


CHAPTER  X. 

Birds. — Great  Variety  and  vast  Numbers  of  Birds. — Flocks  of  Geese. 
—  Employment  for  the  Sportsman.  —  The  Captive  Crane. — Wild 
and  tame  Geese. — The  pious  and  profane  Ancestors. — List  of  Birds 
found  at  Erzeroom 132 


CONTENTS.  xiii 


CHAPTER  XL 

Excursion  to  the  Lake  of  Tortoom. — Romantic  Bridge. — Gloomy 
Effect  of  the  Lake. — Singular  Boat. — "  Evaporation"  of  a  Pistol. — 
Kiamili  Pasha. — Extraordinary  Marksman. — Alarming  Blness  of  the 
Author. — An  Earthquake. — Lives  lost  through  intense  Cold. — The 
Author  recovers Page  145 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Start  for  Trebizond. — Personal  Appearance  of  the  Author. — Mountain 
Pass. — Reception  at  Beyboort. — Misfortunes  of  Mustapha. — Pass  of 
Zigana  Dagh. — Arrival  at  Trebizond 155 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Former  History  of  Trebizond. — Ravages  of  the  Goths. — Their  Siege 
and  Capture  of  the  City. — Dynasties  of  Courtenai  and  the  Comneni. 
— The  "Emperor"  David.  —  Conquest  of  Trebizond  by  Mehemet 
II 166 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

Impassable  Character  of  the  Country. — Dependence  of  Persia  on  the 
Czar. — Russian  Aggrandizement. — Delays  of  the  Western  Powers. 
— Russian  Acquisitions  from  Turkey  and  Persia. — Oppression  of 
the  Russian  Government. — The  Conscription. — Armenian  Emigra- 
tion.— The  Armenian  Patriarch. — Latent  Power  of  the  Pope. — 
Anomalous  Aspect  of  religious  Questions 178 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Ecclesiastical  History. — Supposed  Letter  of  Abgarus,  King  ofEdessa, 
to  our  Savior,  and  the  Answer. — Promulgation  and  Establishment 
of  Christianity. — Labors  of  Mesrob  Maschdots. — Separation  of  the 
Armenian  Church  from  that  of  Constantinople. — Hierarchy  and  re- 
ligious Establishments. — Superstition  of  the  Lower  Classes. — Sac- 
erdotal Vestments.  —  The  Holy  Books.  —  Romish  Branch  of  the 
Church. — Labors  of  Mechitar. — His  Establishment  near  Venice. — 
Diffusion  of  the  Scriptures 194 


x}v  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Modern  division  of  Armenia. — Population. — Manners  and  Customs  of 
the  Christians. — Superiority  of  the  Mohammedans Page  209 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Armenian  Manuscripts. — Manuscripts  at  Etchmiazin. — Comparative 
Value  of  Manuscripts. — Uncial  Writing. — Monastic  Libraries. — Col- 
lections in  Europe. — The  St.  Lazaro  Library 213 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

General  History  of  Armenia. — Former  Sovereigns. — Tiridates  I.  re- 
ceives his  Crown  from  Nero. — Conquest  of  the  Country  by  the  Per- 
sians and  by  the  Arabs. — List  of  modern  Kings. — Misfortunes  of 
Leo  V. :  his  Death  at  Paris 218 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Map  of  Armenia To  face  title-page. 

Ruined  Armenian  Church  near  Erzeroom In  title-page. 

General  View  of  Erzeroom To  face  page    45 

Erzeroom.     View  from  the  house  of  the  British  Commissioners. 

To  face  page    50 

Koordish  Gallows In  page    95 

Fundook "        120 

Ruined  Tower  in  the  Castle  of  Tortoom To  face  page  145 

Boat  on  the  Lake  of  Tortoom "  149 

Quarantine  Harbor,  Trebizond "  165 


^^  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

Of 


ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  "Bad  Black  Sea."  —  Coal-field  near  the  Bosporus. — Trebizond 
from  the  Sea. — Fish  and  Turkeys. — The  Bazaars. — Coronas. — An- 
cient Tombs. — Church  of  St.  Sofia. — Preservation  of  old  Manners 
and  Ceremonies. — Toilet  of  a  Person  of  Distinction. — Russian  Loss 
in  1828-9. — Ancient  Prayer. — Varna. — Statistics  of  Wallachia. — 
Visit  to  Abdallah  Pasha. — His  outward  Appearance. — His  love  of 
medical  Experiments. — Trade  of  Trebizond. 

Fena  kara  Degniz,  "  The  Bad  Black  Sea."  This 
is  the  character  that  stormy  lake  has  acquired  in  the 
estimation  of  its  neighbors  at  Constantinople.  Of  1000 
Turkish  vessels  which  skim  over  its  waters  every  year, 
500  are  said  to  be  wrecked  as  a  matter  of  course. 
The  wind  sometimes  will  blow  from  all  the  four  quar- 
ters of  heaven  within  two  hours'  time,  agitating  the 
waters  like  a  boiling  caldron.  Dense  fogs  obscure  the 
air  during  the  winter,  by  the  assistance  of  which  the 
Turkish  vessels  continually  mistake  the  entrance  of  a 
valley  called  the  False .  Bogaz  for  the  entrance  of  the 
Bosporus,  and  are  wrecked  there  perpetually.  I  have 
seen  dead  bodies  floating  about  in  that  part  of  the  sea, 
where  I  first  became  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  the 
corpse  of  a  woman  floats  upon  its  back,  while  that  of 
a  man  floats  upon  its  face.  Tn  short,  at  Constantino- 
ple they  say  that  every  thing  that  is  bad  comes  from 


18  ARMENIA. 


the  Black  Sea  :  the  plague,  the  Russians,  the  fogs,  and 
the  cold,  all  come  from  thence  ;  and  though  this  time 
we  had  a  fine  calm  passage,  I  was  glad  enough  to  ar- 
rive at  the  end  of  the  voyage  .at  Trehizond.  Before 
landing,  however,  I  must  give  a  passing  tribute  to  the 

—beauty  of  the  scenery  on  the  south  coast,  that  is,  on 
the  north  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  Rocks  and  hills  are  its 
usual  character  near  the  shore,  with  higher  mount- 
ains inland.  Between  the  Bosporus  and  Heraclea  are 
boundless  fields  of  coal^  which  crops  out  on  the  side  of 
the  hills,  so  that  no  mining  would  be  required  to  get 
the  coal ;  and  besides  this  great  facility  in  its  produc- 
tion, the  hills  are  of  such  an  easy  slope  that  a  tram- 
road  would  convey  the  coal- wagons  down  to  the  ships 
on  the  sea-coast  without  any  difficulty.  No  nation  but 
the  Turks  would  delay  to  make  use  of  such  a  source 
of  enormous  wealth  as  this  coal  would  naturally  sup- 
ply, when  it  can  be  had  with  such  remarkable  ease  so 
near  to  the  great  maritime  city  of  Constantinople.  It 
seems  to  be  a  peculiarity  in  human  nature  that  those 
who  are  too  stupid  to  undertake  any  useful  work  are 
frequently  jealous  of  the  interference  of  others  who  are 
more  able  and  willing  than  themselves,  as  the  old  fa- 

-  '  ble  of  the  dog  in  the  manger  exemplifies.  I  under- 
stand that  more  than  one  English  company  have  been 
desirous  of  opening  these  immense  mines  of  wealth,  on 
the  condition  of  paying  a  large  sum  or  a  good  per  cent- 
age  to  the  Turkish  government ;  but  they  are  jealous 
of  a  foreigner's  undertaking  that  which  they  are  in- 
capable of  carrying  out  themselves.  So  E  nglish  steam- 
ers bring  English  coal  to  Constantinople,  which  costs 
I  don't  know  what  by  the  time  it  arrives  within  a  few 


TREBIZOND    FROM    THE    SEA.  ^9 

miles  of  a  spot*  which  is  as  well  furnished  with  the 
most  useful,  if  not  the  most  ornamental,  of  minerals, 
as  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  itself. 

Beyond  Sinope,  where  the  flat  alluvial  land  stretch- 
es down  to  the  sea-shore,  there  are  forests  of  such  tim- 
ber as  we  have  no  idea  of  in  these  northern  regions. 
Here  there  are  miles  of  trees  so  high,  and  large,  and 
straight,  that  they  look  like  minarets  in  flower.  Wild 
boars,  stags,  and  various  kinds  of  game  abound  in  these 
magnificent  primeval  woods,  protected  by  the  fevers 
and  agues  which  arise  from  the  dense  jungle  and  un- 
healthy swamps  inland,  which  prevent  the  sportsman 
from  following  the  game  during  great  part  of  the  year. 
The  inhabitants  of  all  this  part  of  Turkey,  Circassia, 
&c,  are  good  shots  with  the  short,  heavy  rifle,  which  is 
their  constant  companion,  and  they  sometimes  kill  a 
deer.  As  their  religion  protects  the  pigs,  the  wild 
boars  roam  unmolested  in  this,  for  them  at  least,  "  free 
and  independent  country."  The  stag  resembles  the 
red  deer  in  every  respect,  only  it  is  considerably  small- 
er ;  its  venison  is  not  particularly  good. 

Trebizond  presents  an  imposing  appearance  from  the 
sea.  It  stands  upon  a  rocky  table-land,  from  which 
peculiarity  in  its  situation  it  takes  its  name — rpane^a 
being  a  table  in  Greek,  if  we  are  to  believe  what  Dr. 
used  to  tell  us  at  school.     There  is  no  harbor, 


not  even  a  bay,  and  a  rolling  sea  comes  in  sometimes 
which  looks,  and  I  should  think  must  be,  awfully  dan- 
gerous.    I  have  seen  the  whole  of  the  keel  of  the  ships 

*  Since  this  was  written,  the  coal-field  of  Eragle  has  been  opened 
under  the  direction  of  English  engineers,  and  the  coals  are  sent  to  Con- 
stantinople. 


20 


ARMENIA. 


at  anchor,  as  they  rolled  over  from  one  side  to  the  oth- 
er. The  view  from  the  sea  of  the  curious  ancient 
town,  the  mountains  in  the  background,  and  the  great 
chain  of  the  Circassian  Mountains  on  the  left,  is  mag- 
nificent in  the  extreme.  The  only  thing  that  the 
Black  Sea  is  good  for,  that  I  know  of  (and  that,  I 
think,  may  be  said  of  some  other  seas),  is  fish.  The 
kalkan  balouk,  shield-fish — a  sort  of  turbot,  with  black 
prickles  on  his  back — though  not  quite  worth  a  voyage 
to  Trebizond,  is  well  worth  the  attention  of  the  most 
experienced  gastronome  when  he  once  gets  there.  The 
red  mullet,  also,  is  caught  in  great  quantities ;  but  the 
oddest  fish  is  the  turkey.  This  animal  is  generally 
considered  to  be  a  bird,  of  the  genus  poultry,  and  so 
he  is  in  all  outward  appearances;  but  at  Trebizond 
v  the  turkeys  live  entirely  upon  a  diet  of  sprats  and  oth- 
er little  fish  washed  on  shore  by  the  waves,  by  which 
it  comes  to  pass  that  their  flesh  tastes  like  very  ex- 
ceedingly bad  fish,  and  abominably  nasty  it  is ;  though, 
if  reclaimed  from  these  bad  habits,  and  fed  on  corn 
and  herbs,  like  other  respectable  birds,  they  become 
very  good,  and  are  worthy  of  being  stuffed  with  chest- 
nuts and  roasted,  and  of  occupying  the  spot  upon  the 
dinner-table  from  whence  the  remains  of  the  kalkan 
balouk  have  been  removed. 

On  landing,  the  beauty  of  the  prospect  ceases,  for, 
like  many  Oriental  towns,  the  streets  are  lanes  be- 
tween blank  walls,  over  which  the  branches  of  fig- 
trees,  roofs  of  houses,  and  boughs  of  orange  and  lemon 
trees  appear  at  intervals ;  so  that,  riding  along  the 
blind  alleys,  you  do  not  know  whether  there  are  houses 
or  gardens  on  each  side. 


BAZAARS.  21 


The  bazaars  are  a  contrast,  by  their  life  and  bustle, 
to  the  narrow  lanes  through  which  they  are  approach- 
ed. Here  numbers  of  the  real  old-fashioned  Turks 
are  to  be  seen,  with  turbans  as  large  as  pumpkins,  of 
all  colors  and  forms,  steadily  smoking  all  manner  of 
pipes. 

I  do  not  know  why  Europeans  persist  in  calling 
these  places  bazaars  :  charchi  is  the  Turkish  for  what 
we  call  bazaar,  or  bezestein  for  an  inclosed  covered 
place  containing  various  shops.  The  word  bazaar 
means  a  market,  which  is  altogether  a  different  kind 
of  thing. 

The  bazaars  of  Trebizond  contain  a  good  deal  of 
rubbish,  both  of  the  human  and  inanimate  kind. 
Cheese,  saddles,  old,  dangerous-looking  arms,  and  va- 
rious peddlery  and  provisions,  were  all  that  was  to  be 
seen.  Many  ruined  buildings  of  Byzantine  architec- 
ture tottered  by  the  sides  of  the  more  open  spaces, 
some  apparently  very  ancient,  and  well  worth  exam- 
ination. In  the  porches  of  two  little  antiquated  Greek 
churches  I  saw  some  frescoes  of  the  twelfth  century, 
apparently  in  excellent  preservation ;  one  of  portraits 
of  Byzantine  kings  and  princes,  in  their  royal  robes, 
caught  my  attention,  but  I  had  not  time  to  do  more 
than  take  a  hasty  look  at  it.  The  tomb  of  Solomon, 
the  son  of  David,  king  of  Greorgia  or  Immeretia,  stand- 
ing in  the  court-yard  of  another  Greek  church,  under  a 
sort  of  canopy  of  stone,  is  a  very  curious  monument ; 
and  in  two  churches  there  are  ancient  coronas,  which 
seemed  to  be  of  silver  gilt,  eight  or  ten  feet  in  diame- 
ter, most  precious  specimens  of  early  metal- work,  which 
I  coveted  and  desired  exceedingly.     They  were  both 


22  ARMENIA. 


V 


engraved  with  texts  from  Scripture,  and  saints  and 
cherubim  of  the  grimmest  aspect,  so  old,  and  quaint, 
and  ugly,  that  they  may  be  said  to  be  really  painfully 
curious.  While  on  this  subject  I  may  remark  that  I 
am  not  aware  where  the  authority  is  to  be  found  for 
introducing  the  quantities  of  coronas.,  which  are  now 
hung  up  in  modern  antique  churches  in  England.  I 
never  saw  one  in  any  Latin  church,  except  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle ;  there  are,  I  presume,  others,  but  they  cer- 
tainly never  were  common  nor  usual  any  where  in 
Europe.  All  those  I  know  of  are  Greek,  and  belong 
to  the  Greek  ceremonial  rite.  I  have  never  met  with 
an  ancient  Gothic  corona,  and  should  be  glad  to  know 
from  whence  those  lately  introduced  into  our  parish 
churches  have  been  copied. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  town  from. the  landing- 
place,  a  mile  or  so  beyond  the  beautiful  old  walls  of 
the  Byzantine  citadel,  is  a  small_grassy  plain,  with 
some  fine  single  trees.  This  plain  is  situated,  on  a 
terrace,  with  the  open  sea  on  the  right  hand,  on  a  level 
of  fifty  or  more  feet  below.  The  view  from  hence  on 
all  sides  is  lovely.  The  glorious  blue  sea — for  it  is  not 
black  here — on  the  right  hand ;  the  walls  and  towers 
crumbling  into  ruin  behind  you,  the  hills  to  the  left,  at 
the  foot  of  which,  built  on  the  level  grass,  are  several 
ancient  tombs,  whether  Mohammedan  or  Christian  I 
do  not  know ;  they  are  low  round  towers,  with  conical 
roofs,  like  old-fashioned  pigeon-houses,  but  rich  in  col- 
or, with  old  brick,  and  stone,  and  marble.  Parasitical 
plants,  growing  from  rents  and  crevices  occasioned  by 
time,  are  left  in  peace  by  the  Turks,  who,  after  all,  are 
the  best  conservators  of  antiquity  in  the  world,  for  they 


ST.    SOFIA.  23 


let  things  alone.  There  are  no  churchwardens  yet  in 
Turkey  ;  there  are  no  tasty  architects,  with  contempt- 
ible and  gross  ignorance  of  antiquity,  architecture,  and 
taste,  to  Build  ridiculous  failures  for  a  confiding  min- 
istry in  London,  or  a  rich  gentleman  in  the  country, 
who  does  not  pretend  to  know  any  thing  about  the 
matter,  and  falls  into  the  error  of  believing  that  if  he 
pays  well  he  will  be  well  served,  and  that  a  man  who 
has  been  brought  up  to  build  buildings  must  know  how 
to  do  it :  and  this  knowledge  is  displayed  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  British  Museum,  the  National  Gallery, 
and  other  original  edifices. 

The  spleen  aroused  in  writing  these  words  is  calmed 
by  the  recollection  of  the  ruins  of  the  fortified  monas- 
tery, as  it  would  appear  to  have  been,  before  my  eyes 
at  the  further  end  of  this  charming  open  plain ;  a  By- 
zantine gate-house  stands  within  a  ditch  surrounding  a 
considerable  space,  in  which  some  broken  walls  give 
evidence  of  a  stately  palace  or  monastery  which  once 
rose  there ;  but  there  still  stands  towering  to  a  great 
height  the  almost  perfect  church  of  St.  Sofia — the  Holy 
Wisdom,  not  the  saint  of  that  name,  but  the  deity  to 
whom  the  great  cathedral  of  St.  Sofia  is  dedicated  at 
Constantinople.  This  church  is  curious  and  interest- 
ing in  the  extreme ;  it  is  most  rich  in  many  of  the  pe- 
culiarities of  Byzantine  architecture  outside,  and  with- 
in there  are  very  perfect  remains  of  frescoes,  in  a  style 
of  art  such  as  I  have  hardly  seen  equaled,  never  in  any 
fresco  paintings.  The  only  ones  equal  to  them  are  the 
illuminations  in  the  one  odd  volume  of  the  Wr\voXoyia 
in  the  Vatican  Library,  and  some  in  my  own.  There ^ 
are  several  half  figures  of  emperors  in  brilliant  colors, 


24  ARMENIA. 


in  circular  compartments,  on  the  under  sides  of  some 
arches,  and  numerous  other  paintings,  of  which  the 
^colors  are  so  vivid  that  they  resemble  painted  glass, 
particularly  where  they  are  broken,  as  the  sharp  out- 
lines of  what  is  left  betoken  that  they  would  be  still  as 
bright  as  jewelry  where  they  have  not  been  destroyed 
by  the  plaster,  on  which  they  are  painted,  giving  way. 

The  position,  beauty,  and  antiquity  of  this  Christian 
relic  in  a  Mohammedan  land,  give  a  singular  interest  to 
the  Church  of  St.  Sofia  at  Trebizond.  I  longed  to  give 
this  place  a  thorough  examination.  Perhaps  a  portrait 
of  some  old  Comnenus  would  present  itself  to  my  ad- 
miring eyes.  Many  likenesses  of  by-gone  emperors, 
Caesars,  and  princesses  born  in  the  purple,  might  be  re- 
covered in  all  the  splendor  of  their  royal  robes  and  al- 
most sacred  crowns  and  diadems,  to  gladden  the  hearts 
of  antiquarians  enthusiastic  in  the  cause,  and  who,  like 
myself,  would  be  ten  times  more  delighted  with  the 
possession  of  a  portrait,  or  an  incomprehensible  work 
of  art  of  undoubted  Byzantine  origin,  than  with  the 
offer  of  the  hand,  even  of  the  illustrious  Anna  Comne- 
na  herself.  Her  portrait,  after  the  lapse  of  600  years, 
would  be  most  interesting ;  but  I  do  not  envy  the  Caesar 
who  obtained  the  honor  of  an  alliance  with  that  prin- 
cess of  the  caerulean  hose. 

At  this  point,  feeling  myself  entangled  with  the  rem- 
iniscences of  Byzantine  history,  I  must  branch  off  into 
a  little  episode  relating  to  the  singular  preservation  of 
ancient  manners  and  ceremonies  still  in  use,  or,  at  least, 
remaining  in  the  year  1830  in  Wallachia  and  Moldavia. 
The  usages  and  the  etiquette  of  those  courts,  together 
with  the  names  and  the  costumes  of  the  great  officers 


OLD    CUSTOMS    PRESERVED.  25 

of  state,  are  all  derived  from  those  of  the  Christian 
court  of  Constantinople  before  the  disastrous  days  of 
Mohammed  the  Second.  Now  that  those  fertile  lands 
are  overrun  by  the  descendants  of  the  Avars,  and  the 
fierce  tribes  of  northern  barbarians,  who  so  often  in  the 
Middle  Ages  carried  fire  and  sword,  tallow  and  sheep- 
skins, almost  to  the  walls  of  the  city — rrjv  fioXlv  ■  etc 
TTjv  fioXiv — from  whence  comes  Stamboul,  I  may  be, 
perhaps,  excused  if  I  put  in  a  few  lines  relating  to  an- 
other country,  but  which,  I  think,  are  interesting  dur- 
ing the  present  state  of  the  affairs  of  the  Turkish  em- 
pire. 

In  the  year  1838  I  left  Constantinople  on  my  way 
to  Vienna.  I  went  to  Yarna,  and  from  thence  proceed- 
ed up  the  Danube  in  a  miserable  steamer,  on  board  of 
which  was  a^personage  of  high  distinction  belonging  to 
a  neighboring  nation,  whose  manners  and  habits  afford- 
ed me  great  amusement.  He  was  courteous  and  gen- 
tlemanlike in  a  remarkable  degree,  but  his  domestic 
ways  differed  from  those  of  our  own  countrymen.  He 
had  a  numerous  suite  of  servants,  three  or  four  of  whom 
seemed  to  be  a  sort  of  gentlemen ;  these  attended  him 
every  night  when  he  went  to  bed,  in  the  standing  bed- 
place  of  the  crazy  steamer.  First  they  wound  up  six 
or  seven  gold  watches,  and  the  great  man  took  off  his 
boots,  his  coat,  and  I  don't  know  how  many  gold  chains ; 
then  each  night  he  was  invested  by  his  attendants  with 
a  different  fur  pelisse,  which  looked  valuable  and  fusty 
to  my  humble  eyes.  Each  morning  the  same  gentle- 
men spread  out  all  the  watches,  took  off  the  fur  pelisse, 
and  insinuated  their  lord  into  a  fashionable  and  some- 
what tight  coat,  not  the  one  worn  yesterday ;  but  on 

B 


26 


ARMENIA. 


no  occasion  did  I  perceive  any  thing  in  the  nature  of 
an  ablution,  or  any  proof  that  such  an  article  as  a  clean 
shirt  formed  a  part  of  the  great  man's  traveling  ward- 
robe. 

Varna  is  situated  on  a  gentle  slope  a  short  distance 
from  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  three  or  four 
miles  to  the  south  of  a  range  of  hills,  between  which 
and  the  town  the  unfortunate  Russian  army  was  en- 
camped during  the  war  of  the  year  1829.  I  say  un- 
fortunate, and  all  will  agree  with  me,  if  they  take  into 
consideration  a  fact  which  I  write  on  undoubted  au- 
thority. When  the  Russians  invaded  Turkey  in  1828, 
they  lost  50,000  men  by  sickness  alone,  by  want  of  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  neglect  in  the  commissariat  de- 
partment :  50,000  Russians  died  on  the  plains  of  Tur- 
key, n^jm^man  of  whom  was  killed  in  battle,  for  their 
advance  was  not  resisted  by  the  Turks. 

In  the  next  year  (1829)  the  Russians  lost  60,000  men 
between  the  Pruth  and  the  city  of  Adrianople.  Some 
of  these,  however,  were  legitimately  slain  in  battle. 
When  they  arrived  at  Adrianople,  the  troops  were  in  so 
wretched  a  condition  from  sickness  and  want  of  food 
that  not  7000  men  were  able  to  bear  arms :  how  many 
thousands  of  horses  and  mules  perished  in  these  two 
years  is  not  known.  The  Turkish  government  was 
totally  ignorant  of  this  deplorable  state  of  affairs  at 
Adrianople  till  some  time  afterward,  when  the  intelli- 
gence came  too  late.  If  the  Turks  had  known  what 
was  going  on,  not  one  single  Russian  would  have  seen 
his  native  land  again  ;  even  as  it  was,  out  of_120j000 
men,  not  6000  ever  recrossed  the  Russian  frontier  alive. 
Since  the  days  of  Cain,  the  first  murderer,  among  all 


ANCIENT    PRAYER.  27 

nations,  and  among  all  religions,  he  who  kills  his  fellow- 
creature  without  just  cause  is  looked  upon  with  horror 
and  disgust,  and  is  pursued  by  the  avenging  curse  of 
Grod  and  man.  "What,  then,  shall  he  thought  of  that 
individual  who,  without  reason,  without  the  slightest 
show  of  justice,  right,  or  justifiable  pretense,  from  his 
own  caprice,  to  satisfy  his  own  feelings,  and  lust  of 
pride,  and  arrogance,  destroys  for  his  amusement,  in 
two  years,  more  than  100,000  of  his  fellow-creatures  ? 
Shall  not  their  blood  cry  out  for  vengeance  ?  Had  not 
each  of  these  men  a  soul,  immortal  as  their  butcher's  ? 
Had  not  many  of  them,  many  thousands  of  them  per- 
haps, more  faith,  more  trust  in  (rod,  higher  talents 
than  their  destroyer  ?  Better  had  it  been  for  that  man 
had  he  never  been  born  ! 

The  following  prayer  is  translated  from  one  at  the 
end  of  an  ancient  Bulgarian  or  Russian  manuscript, 
written  in  the  year  1355  :  "  The  Judge  seated,  and  the 
apostle  standing  before  him,  and  the  trumpet  sounding, 
and  the  fire  burning,  what  wilt  thou  do,  O  my  soul, 
when  thou  art  carried  to  the  judgment  ?  for  then  all 
thy  evils  will  appear,  and  all  thy  secret  sins  will  be 
made  manifest.  Therefore  now,  beforehand,  endeavor 
to  pray  to  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Oh,  do  not  thou  re- 
ject me,  but  save  me." 

The  fortifications  of  Yarna  are  very  flat  and  low, 
though  they  are  said  to  be  of  great  strength ;  but,  as  the 
town  is  built  of  wood,  I  should  think  there  would  be 
little  difficulty  in  setting  it  on  fire  by  the  assistance  of 
a  few  shells  or  red-hot  shot,  from  ships  at  sea  or  bat- 
teries on  the  land.  From  all  such  fortresses  I  am  de- 
lighted to  escape  :  the  bastions,  ditches,  and  ramparts 


28  ARMENIA. 

keep  me  in,  though  they  are  intended  to  keep  others 
out.  There  is  nothing  picturesque  in  a  modern  strong- 
hold, as  there  are  no  battlements  and  towers,  or  any- 
thing pleasing  to  the  eye ;  only,  whichever  way  you 
turn,  you  are  sure  to  be  stopped  by  a  green  ditch  with 
a  frog  in  it ;  I  therefore  only  remained  long  enough  at 
Yarna  to  see  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen. 

The  principality  of  Wallachia  contains  1,500,000  in- 
habitants liable  to  taxation,  800  nobles,  and  15,000 
strangers,  subjects  of  various  powers. 

It  is  governed  by  a  prince  (gika),  who  reigns  for  life. 
The  civil  list  amounts  to — 

50,000  Austrian  ducats  yearly. 

All  the  officials  are  paid  by  the  government. 

The  revenues  of  the  principality  are  derived  from  tribute,  which 

amounts  to 300,000  ducats  yearly. 

The  salt-works,  which  yield 150,000      "  " 

Domains  of  the  prince 30,000      "  " 

The  customs 70,000      "  " 

Total 550,000      " 

The  expenses  are,  yearly  : 

Ducats. 

Civil  List  of  the  prince 50,000 

The  Ottoman  Porte  for  tribute 30,000 

Salaries  of  officials 150,000 

Troops,  4000  men 100,000 

Ten  quarantine  stations  on  the  Danube 20,000 

Hospitals 5,000 

Schools 12,000 

Post 30,000 

Repair  of  roads 8,000 

Total 405,000 

The  capital  of  Wallachia  is  Bucharest,  containing 
12,000  houses  and  80,000  inhabitants,  of  whom  10,000 
are  strangers. 


STATISTICS   OF   WALLACHIA.  29 


There  is  one  metropolitan,  who  lives  at  Bucharest, 
and  has  a  revenue  of  10,000  ducats ;  and  three  bish- 
ops, of  Rimnik,  Argessi,  and  Buzeo,  who  have  8000 
each.  The  salary  of  the  first  minister  is  3600  ducats 
yearly.  There  are  three  ranks  of  nobles.  The  highest 
consists  of  sixty  individuals,  who  have  the  right  of  elect- 
ing the  prince  ;  the  second  numbers  300,  and  the  third 
440.  The  prime  minister  is  called  the  bano  ;  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, spathar  ;  the  minister  of  the  interior, 
the  great  dvornic  ;  the  minister  of  justice,  the  great 
logothete.  The  greatest  family  is  that  of  Brancovano, 
the  revenue  of  its  chief  being  12,000  ducats.  The  ti- 
tles of  the  great  officers  of  state,  and  the  principal  peo- 
ple about  the  court  of  the  Hospodar,  are  derived  from 
the  institutions  of  the  Byzantine  emperors.  These  no- 
bles are  divided  into  three  classes.  The  following  is 
the  order  of  their  precedence  : 

1st  Class. 

1.  Bano Marshal  of  the  Palace. 

2.  Dvornic Lord  Chamberlain. 

3.  Spathar Commander-in-Chief. 

4.  Logothete Chief  Secretary. 

5.  Postemic Foreign  Minister. 

6.  Aga Inspector  of  Police. 

2d  Class. 

1.  Clochiar Commissary  General. 

2.  Paharme Cup-bearer. 

3d  Class. 

1.  Serdar Commander  of  1000  men. 

2.  Pitar Inspector  of  the  Ovens. 

3.  Consepist Registrar  General. 

It  is  in  the  power  of  the  government  to  raise  any 
of  these  nobles  a  step  after  a  service  of  three  years. 


30  ARMENIA. 


/ 


Before  the  year  1827  these  officers  were  paid  by  con- 
tributions raised  on  the  subjects  of  the  Prince,  who 
were  then  exempted  from  any  other  taxes.  The  Bano 
had  one  hundred  and  twenty  men,  the  Dvornic  one 
hundred,  the  Paharme  twenty-five,  and  so  on ;  from 
these  they  took  as  much  as  they  could,  one  man  aver- 
aging three  ducats  a  year  in  value  to  his  lord. 

The  treaty  of  Adrianople  contains  an  article  insur- 
ing the  independence  of  the  interior  administration  of 
the  country.  On  the  18th  of  May,  1838,  an  order  was 
brought  from  Constantinople  by  Baron  Rukman,  in 
which  it  was  stated  that  the  General  Assembly  are  to 
insert  a  clause  in  the  Constitution,  which  obliges  them 
to  have  leave  of  the  Russians  before  any  alteration 
whatever  is  made  in  the  regulation  of  the  interior. 
The  army  can  not  be  increased,  or  any  differences  made 
in  the  administration  of  the  quarantine,  &o.,  without 
permission  from  Russia,  which  is  in  direct  contradic- 
tion to  the  Treaty  of  Adrianople.  Sentence  of  death 
is  abolished  by  the  Constitution,  but  great  offenders  are 
sent  to  the  mines  for  life. 

Having  accomplished  our  little  tour  to  "Wallachia, 
we  will  recross  the  sea  to  Trebizond,  and  return  to  the 
inspection  of  that  ancient  city,  so  famous  in  the  ro- 
mance of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Pasha  and  Governor, 
Abdallah  Pasha,  resides  in  the  citadel,  a  large  space  of 
ruinous  buildings,  surrounded  by  romantic  walls  and 
towers,  in  the  same  style  as  those  of  Constantinople. 
As  in  duty  bound,  we  proceeded  in  great  state  to  pay 
a  visit  of  ceremony  to  the  viceroy.  As  our  long  train 
of  horsemen  wound  through  the  narrow  streets,  and 
passed  under  the  long  dark  tunnel  of  the  Byzantine 


VISIT    TO    ABDALLAH    PASHA.  3]^ 

gateway,  we  must  have  looked  quite  in  keeping  with 
the  picturesque  appearance  of  that  ancient  fortress. 
From  the  gloomy  gate  we  emerged  into  a  large,  ruin- 
ous court  or  space  of  no  particular  shape,  hut  surround- 
ed hy  tumhle-down  houses,  with  wooden  balconies  fes- 
tooned with  vines.  I  was  struck  with  the  absence  of 
guards  and  soldiers,  who  are  usually  drawn  up  on  these 
occasions  in  a  wavy  line,  to  do  honor  or  to  impose  upon 
the  awe-stricken  feelings  of  the  Elchi  Bey. 

We  passed  through  another  court,  if  I  remember 
right,  till  we  found  a  number  of  servants  and  officials 
waiting  our  arrival  at  an  open  door,  and,  having  dis- 
mounted, with  the  assistance  of  numerous  supporters 
we  scrambled  up  a  large,  dark,  crazy  wooden  stair,  at 
the  top  of  which,  on  a  curtain  being  drawn  aside,  we 
were  ushered  into  a  large,  lofty  room,  where  we  be- 
held the  Pasha  seated  on  the  divan,  under  a  range  of 
windows,  at  the  upper  end  of  the  selamlik,  or  hall  of 
reception.  Then  commenced  the  regular  exercise  of 
formal  civilities,  bows,  and  inquiries  after  each  other's 
health,  carried  on  in  a  thorough  mechanical  manner, 
neither  party  even  pretending  to  look  as  if  he  meant 
any  thing  he  said.  We  smoked  pipes,  and  drank  cof- 
fee, and  made  a  little  bow  to  the  Pasha  afterward,  in 
the  most  orthodox  way,  till  we  were  bored  and  tired, 
and  wished  it  was  time  to  come  away ;  but  this  sort 
of  visit  was  a  serious  affair,  and  I  don't  know  how  long 
we  sat  there,  with  the  crowd  of  kawasses  and  chibouk- 
gis  staring  at  us  steadily  from  the  lower  end  of  the 
haU. 

What  the  Pasha  looked  like,  and  what  manner  of 
man  he  was,  it  was  not  easy  to  make  out,  seeing  that 


32  ARMENIA. 


to  the  outward  eye  he  presented  the  appearance  of  a 
large  green  hundle,  with  a  red  fez  at  the  top,  for  he  was 
enveloped  in  a  great  furred  cloak ;  he  seemed  to  have 
dark  eyes,  like  every  "body  else  in  this  country,  and  a 
long  nose  and  a  black  beard,  whereof  the  confines  or  lim- 
its were  not  to  be  ascertained,  as  I  could  not  readily 
distinguish  what  was  beard  and  what  Was  fur.  Every 
now  and  then  his  excellency  snuffled,  as  if  he  had  got 
a  cold,  but  I  think  it  was  only  a  trick. ;  however,  when 
he  lifted  up  his  voice  to  speak,  the  depth  and  hollow 
sound  was  very  remarkable.  I  have  heard  several 
Turks  speak  in  this  way,  which  I  believe  they  consid- 
er dignified,  and  imagine  that  it  is  done  in  imitation 
of  Sultan  Mahmoud,  who,  whether  it  was  his  natural 
voice  or  not,  always  spoke  as  if  his  voice  came  out  of 
his  stomach  instead  of  his  mouth.  Abdallah  Pasha 
paid  us  his  compliments  in  this  awful  tone,  and,  till  I 
got  a  little  used  to  it,  I  wondered  out  of  what  particu- 
lar part  of  the  heap  of  fur,  cloth,  &c,  this  thorough- 
bass proceeded.  I  found,  to  my  great  admiration,  that 
the  Pasha  knew  my  name,  and  almost  as  much  of  my 
own  history  as  I  did  myself;  where  he  had  gained  his 
very  important  information  I  know  not,  but  an  interest 
so  unusual  in  any  thing  relating  to  another  person  in- 
duced me  to  make  inquiries  about  him,  and  I  found  he 
was  not  only  a  man  of  the  highest  dignity  and  wealth, 
possessing  villages,  square  miles  and  acres  innumera- 
ble, but  he  was  a  philosopher  ;  if  not  a  writer,  he  was 
a  reader  of  books,  particularly  works  on  medicine. 
This  was  his  great  hobby.  In  the  way  of  government 
he  seemed  to  be  a  most  patriarchal  sort  of  king :  he 
had  no  army  or  soldiers  whatever ;  fifteen  or  sixteen 


ABDALLAH    PASHA.  33 

kawasses  were  all  trie  guards  that  he  supported.  He 
smoked  the  pipe  of  tranquillity  on  the  carpet  of  pru- 
dence, and  the  pashalik  of  Trebizond  slumbered  on  in 
the  sun;  the  houses  tumbled  down  occasionally,  and 
people  repaired  them  never ;  the  Secretary  of  State 
wrote  to  the  Porte  two  or  three  times  a  year,  to  say 
that  nothing  particular  had  happened.  The  only  thing 
I  wondered  at  was  how  the  tribute  was  exacted,  for 
transmitted  it  must  be  regularly  to  Constantinople. 
Rayahs  must  be  squeezed:  they  were  created,  like  or- 
anges, for  that  purpose  ;  but,  somehow  or  other,  Abdal- 
lah  Pasha  seems  to  have  carried  on  the  process  quiet- 
ly, and  the  multitudes  under  his  rule  dozed  on  from 
year  to  year.  That  was  all  very  well  for  those  at  a 
distance,  but  his  immediate  attendants  suffered  occa- 
sionally from  the  philosophical  inquiries  of  their  mas- 
ter. He  thought  of  nothing  but  physic,  and  whenever 
he  could  catch  a  Piedmontese  doctor  he  would  buy 
any  quantity  of  medicine  from  him,  and  talk  learned- 
ly on  medical  subjects  as  long  as  the  doctor  could 
stand  it.  As  nobody  ever  tells  the  truth  in  these 
parts,  the  Pasha  never  believed  what  the  doctor  told 
him,  and  usually  satisfied  his  mind  by  experiments  in 
corpore  vili,  many  of  which,  when  the  accounts  were 
related  to  me,  made  me  cry  with  laughter.  They 
were  mostly  too  medical  to  be  narrated  in  any  unmed- 
ical  assembly. 

Trebizond  is  not  defensible  by  land  or  sea,  nor  could 
it  be  made  so  from  the  land  side,  as  it  is  commanded 
by  the  sloping  hills  immediately  behind  it.  From  there 
being  no  bay  or  harbor  of  any  kind,  its  approach  is  dan- 
gerous during  the  prevalence  of  north  winds,  which 
B2 


34  ARMENIA. 


lash  the  waves  against  the  rocks  with  fury.  Inns  are 
as  yet  unknown ;  there  are  no  khans  that  I  know  of, 
of  any  size  or  importance  as  far  as  architecture  is  con- 
cerned ;  but  large  stables  protect  the  pack-horses  which 
carry  the  bales  of  goods  imported  from  Constantinople 
for  the  Persian  trade,  the  bulk  of  which  has  now  passed 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  English  into  those  of  the  Greek 
merchants.  The  steamer  running  from  Constantino- 
ple is  constantly  laden  with  goods,  and  much  more 
would  be  sent  if  additional  steamers  were  ready  to 
convey  it. 

Our  party  was  received  under  the  hospitable  roof 
of  Mr.  Stephens , the  Yice-Consul,  whose  court- yard  was 
encumbered  with  luggage  of  all  sorts  and  kinds,  over 
which  katergis  or  muleteers  continually  wrangled  in 
setting  apart  different  articles  in  two  heaps,  each  two 
heaps  being  reputed  a  sufficient  load  for  one  horse. 
This  took  some  days  to  arrange,  and  our  time  was  oc- 
cupied with  preparations  for  the  journey  through  the 
mountains. 


DEPARTURE    FROM    TREBIZOND.  3,5 


CHAPTER  II. 

Departure  from  Trebizond. — A  rough  Road. — Turkish  Pack-horses. — 
Value  of  Tea. — The  Pipe  in  the  East. — Mountain  Riding. — Instinct 
of  the  Horse. — A  Caravan  overwhelmed  by  an  Avalanche. — Mount- 
ain of  Hoshabounar. — A  Ride  down  the  Mountain. — Arrival  at  Erze- 
room. 

At  last  we  were  ready ;  the  Russian  commissioner 
traveled  with  us,  and  we  sallied  out  of  the  town  in  a 
straggling  line  up  the  hill,  along  the  only  road  known 
in  this  part  of  the  world.  This  wonder  and  miracle  of 
art  extends  one  mile,  to  the  top  of  a  little  hill.  It  is 
said  to  have  cost  £19,000.  It  ascends  the  mountain 
side  in  defiance  of  all  obstacles,  and  is  more  conven- 
ient for  rolling  down  than  climbing  up,  as  it  is  nearly 
as  steep  as  a  ladder  in  some  places.  When  you  get  to 
the  top  you  are  safe,  for  there  is  no  more  road  as  far 
as  Tabriz.  A  glorious  view  rewards  the  traveler  for 
his  loss  of  breath  in  accomplishing  the  ascent.  From 
hence  the  road  is  a  track,  wide  enough  for  one  loaded 
horse,  passing  through  streams  and  mud,  over  rocks, 
mountains,  and  precipices,  such  as  I  should  hardly 
have  imagined  a  goat  could  travel  upon ;  certainly  no 
sensible  animal  would  ever  try  to  do  so,  unless  upon 
urgent  business.  Pleasure  and  amusement  must  be 
sought  on  broader  ways ;  here  danger  and  difficulty  oc- 
cur at  every  step ;  nevertheless,  the  horses  are  so  well 
used  to  climbing,  and  hopping,  and  floundering  along, 


36  ARMENIA. 


that  the  obstacles  are  gradually  overcome.  In  look- 
ing hack  occasionally,  you  wonder  how  in  the  world 
you  ever  got  to  the  spot  you  are  standing  on.  The 
sure-footedness  of  the  horses  was  marvelous ;  we  often 
galloped  for  half  an  hour  along  the  dry  course  of  a 
mountain  torrent,  for  these  we  considered  our  best 
places,  over  round  stones  as  big  as  a  man's  head,  with 
larger  ones  occasionally  for  a  change ;  but  the  riding- 
horses  hardly  ever  fell.  The  baggage-horses,  encum- 
bered with  their  loads,  tumbled  in  all  directions,  but 
these  unlucky  animals  were  always  kicked  up  again 
by  the  efforts  of  a  posse  of  hard-fisted,  hard-hearted 
muleteers,  and  were  soon  plodding  on  under  the  bur- 
dens which  it  seems  it  was  their  lot  to  bear  for  the  re- 
mainder of  their  lives.  If  this  should  meet  the  eye  of 
any  London  cab-horse — for  what  may  we  not  expect 
in  these  days  of  march  of  intellect  and  national  educa- 
tion?— let  him  thank  his  lucky  star  that  he  is  not 
a  Turkish  pack-horse,  made  to  carry  something  near- 
ly as  heavy  as  a  cab  up  and  down  rocks  as  inaccess- 
ible as  those  immortalized  in  the  famous  verse — 

"  Commodore  Rogers  was  a  man 
Exceedingly  brave — particular  ; 
And  he  climb'd  up  very  high  rocks, 
Exceedingly  high — perpendicular." 

Thus  saith  the  poet ;  what  Commodore  Rogers  would 
have  said  if  he  had  been  of  our  party,  I  don't  know. 
Those  ladies  and  gentlemen  who,  leaning  back  in  easy 
carriages,  bowl  along  the  great  roads  of  the  Simplon, 
may  imagine  what  traveling  there  may  have  been  over 
the  Alps  before  the  roads  were  made,  while  the  nature 
of  the  ground  is  such,  in  two  or  three  places,  that,  un- 


MULETEERS   AND    PACK-HORSES.          37 

less  at  an  incredible  expense  in  engineering,  and  a 
prodigious  daily  outlay  to  keep  them  clear  of  snow,  no 
road  ever  could  be  made ;  yet  this  is  the  only  line  of 
communication  between  Constantinople  and  Persia. 
Through  these  awful  chasms  and  precipices  all  the 
merchandise  is  carried  which  passes  between  these 
two  great  nations.  The  quiet  Manchester  stuffs,  ac- 
customed to  the  broad-wheel  wagons  of  Europe,  and 
the  rail-ways  and  canals  of  England,  must  feel  dread- 
fully jolted  when  they  arrive  at  this  portion  of  their 
journey.  How  the  crockery  bears  it  is  easily  under- 
stood by  those  who  open  the  packages  of  this  kind  of 
ware  at  the  end  of  the  journey,  when  cups  and  sau- 
cers take  the  appearance  of  small  geological  specimens, 
though  some  do  survive,  notwithstanding  the  regular 
custom  of  the  muleteers  to  set  down  their  loads  every 
evening  by  the  summary  process  of  untying  with  a 
jerk  a  certain  cunning  knot  in  the  rope  which  holds 
the  bales  in  their  places  on  each  side  of  the  pack- 
horse:  these  immediately  come  down  with  a  crash 
upon  the  ground,  from  whence  they  are  rolled  along 
and  built  up  into  a  wall,  on  the  lee  side  of  which  a  fire 
is  lit  and  the  muleteers  sleep  when  there  is  no  khan 
to  retire  to  for  the  night. 

On  this  journey  I  for  the  first  time  learned  the  true 
value  of  tea.  One  of  the  kawasses  of  the  Russian 
commissioners  had  a  curious  little  box,  covered  with 
cowsldn,  tied  behind  his  saddle ;  about  twice  a  day  he 
galloped  off  like  mad,  his  arms  and  stirrups,  &c,  mak- 
ing a  noise  as  he  started  like  that  of  upsetting  all  the 
fire-irons  in  a  room  at  home.  In  about  half  an  hour 
we  came  up  with  him  again,  discovering  his  where- 


38  ARMENIA. 


abouts  by  seeing  his  panting  horse  led  up  and  down  by- 
some  small  boy  before  a  hovel,  into  which  we  immedi- 
ately dived.  There  we  found  the  kawass  kneeling  by 
a  blazing  fire,  with  the  cowskin  box  open  on  the  ground 
beside  him,  from  whence  he  presently  produced  glass 
tumblers  of  delicious  caravan  tea,#  sweetened  with 
sugar-candy,  and  a  thin  slice  of  lemon  floating  on  the 
top  of  each  cup.  This  is  the  real  way  to  drink  tea, 
only  one  can  not  always  get  caravan  tea,  and,  when 
you  can,  it  costs  a  guinea  a  pound,  more  or  less ;  but 
its  refreshing,  calming,  and  invigorating  powers  are 
truly  remarkable. 

In  former  days,  in  many  a  long  and  weary  march,  I 
found  a  pipe  of  great  service  in  quieting  the  tired  and 
excited  nerves ;  having  no  love  for  smoking  under  or- 
dinary circumstances,  these  were  the  only  occasions 
when  a  long  chibouk  did  seem  to  be  grateful  and  com- 
forting. That  this  is  pretty  universally  acknowledged 
I  gather  from  the  habit  of  all  the  solemn  old  Turks  in 
Egypt  and  hot  climates  during  the  fast  of  Ramadan, 
who  invariably  take  a  good  whiff  from  their  pipes  the 
moment  that  sunset  is  announced  by  the  firing  of  a  gun 
in  cities,  or  on  the  disappearance  of  its  rays  toward  the 
west  in  the  country.  Supper  does  not  appear  to  be 
looked  forward  to  with  the  same  impatience  as  the  first 
puff  from  the  chibouk.  No  pipe,  however,  possesses  the 
agreeable  qualities  of  a  cup  of  hot  good  tea  made  in 
this  way ;  no  other  beverage  or  contrivance  that  I  know 
of  produces  so  soothing  an  effect,  and  that  in  so  short  a 

*  Caravan  tea  is  tea  which  is  brought  by  caravans,  over  land,  from 
China,  through  the  great  deserts  of  Tartary  :  it  is  much  superior  to  the 
tea  which  comes  by  «ea. 


MOUNTAIN    RIDING.  39 

time.  In  a  few  minutes  the  glasses,  and  the  little  tea- 
pot, and  two  canisters  for  tea  and  sugar-candy,  retired 
into  the  recesses  of  the  cowskin  box ;  the  poor  horses, 
who  had  had  no  tea,  were  again  mounted,  and  on  we 
rode  over  the  rocks  and  stones,  one  after  the  other,  in  a 
long  line,  the  regular  tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  interrupted 
every  now  and  then  by  the  crash  of  one  of  our  boxes 
against  a  rock,  and  the  exclamations  of  the  katergis  as 
its  bearer  wallowed  into  a  hole  or  tumbled  over  some 
horrible  place,  from  whence  it  seemed  impossible  that 
he  should  ever  be  got  up  again.  However,  he  always 
was,  and  at  last  we  hardly  took  notice  of  one  of  these 
little  accidents,  and  notwithstanding  which  we  gener- 
ally got  through  the  mountains  at  the  rate  of  about 
thirty  miles  a  day. 

On  the  second  day  from  Trebizond  we  arrived  at  the 
snow;  the  hoods  with  which  we  had  provided  our- 
selves were  pulled  over  our  heads.  I  tied  my  bridle  to 
the  pommel  of  my  saddle,  put  my  hands  in  my  pockets, 
and  nevertheless  galloped  along — at  least  the  horse  did, 
and  all  the  better  for  my  not  holding  the  bridle.  In 
mountain  traveling  this  is  perhaps  the  most  necessary 
of  all  the  whole  craft  and  art  of  horsemanship,  not  to 
touch  the  bridle  on  any  occasion,  except  when  you  want 
to  stop  the  horse ;  for,  in  difficult  circumstances,  a  horse 
or  mule  goes  much  better  if  he  is  left  to  his  own  de- 
vices. In  some  dreadful  places,  I  have  seen  a  horse 
smell  the  ground,  and  then,  resting  on  his  haunches, 
put  one  foot  forward  as  gently  as  if  it  was  a  finger, 
cautiously  to  feel  the  way.  They  have  a  wonderful 
instinct  of  self-preservation,  seeming  quite  aware  of  the 
perils  of  false  steps,  and  the  dangers  by  which  they  are 


40  ARMENIA. 


surrounded  on  the  ledges  of  bleak  mountains,  and  in 
passing  bogs  and  torrents  in  the  valleys  below. 

At  Beyboort  we  were  received  by  the  governor,  a 
Bey,  who  gave  us  a  famous  good  dinner  or  supper, 
whereof  we  all  ate  an  incredible  quantity,  and  almost 
as  much  more  at  breakfast  next  morning.  At  Grumush 
Hane,  where  there  are  silver  mines,  a  good-natured  old 
gentleman  who  was  sitting  by  the  roadside  gave  me 
the  most  delicious  pear  I  ever  tasted.  This  place  is 
famous  for  its  pears.  Being  situated  in  a  deep  valley, 
the  climate  is  much  better  than  most  parts  of  the  coun- 
try on  this  road.  Here  we  put  up  in  a  good  house,  slept 
like  tops,  and  waddled  off  next  morning  as  before.  I 
had  an  enormous  pair  of  boots  lined  with  sheepskin, 
which  were  the  envy  and  admiration  of  the  party : 
they  were  amazing  snug  certainly,  and  nearly  came 
up  to  my  middle.  If  they  had  been  a  little  bit  larger, 
I  might  have  crept  into  one  at  night,  which  would 
have  been  a  great  convenience ;  they  were  of  the  great- 
est service  on  horseback,  but  on  foot  I  had  much  diffi- 
culty in  getting  along,  and  was  sorry  I  had  neglected 
to  inquire  how  Jack  the  Giant-killer  managed  with  his 
seven-league  boots.  Before  arriving  at  Beyboort  we 
passed  the  mountain  of  Zigana  Dagh,  by  a  place  where 
a  whole  caravan  accompanying  the  harenx^f  the  Pasha 
of  Moush  had  been  overwhelmed  in  an  avalanche,  over 
the  icy  blocks  of  which  we  made  our  way,  the  bodies 
of  the  unfortunate  party  and  all  the  poor  ladies  lying 
buried  far  below.  Beyond  Grumush  Hane  rises  the 
mountain  of  Hoshabounar,  which  is  a  part  of  the  chain 
that  bounds  the  great  plain  of  Erzeroom.  This  was 
the  worst  part  of  the  whole  journey  :  we  approached  it 


MOUNTAIN   RIDING.  4^ 

by  interminable  plains  of  snow,  along  which  the  track 
appeared  like  a  narrow  black  line.  These  plains  of 
snow,  which  look  so  even  to  the  sight,  are  not  always 
really  so ;  the  hollows  and  inequalities  being  filled  with 
the  snow,  you  may  fall  into  a  hole  and  be  smothered 
if  you  leave  the  path.  This  path  is  hardened  by  the 
passage  of  caravans,  which  tread  down  the  snow  into 
a  track  of  ice  just  wide  enough  for  a  single  file  of 
horses ;  but  while  you  think  you  are  on  a  plain,  you 
are,  in  fact,  riding  on  the  top  of  a  wall  or  ridge,  from 
whence,  if  your  horse  should  chance  to  slip,  you  do  not 
know  how  deep  you  may  sink  down  into  the  soft  snow 
on  either  side. 

At  the  top  of  the  mountain  we  met  thirty  horses 
which  the  Pasha  of  Erzeroom  had  sent  for  our  use. 
We  had  above  thirty  of  our  own,  so  now  there  were 
sixty  horses  in  our  train.  The  Russian  commissioner 
and  I  left  all  these  behind,  and  rode  on  together  with 
two  or  three  guards,  accompanied  by  the  chief  of  the 
village  where  we  were  to  sleep.  At  last  we  came  to 
the  brow  of  the  hill — we  could  not  see  to  the  bottom 
from  the  snow  that  was  falling — it  was  as  steep  as  the 
roof  of  a  house,  and  the  road  consisted  of  a  series  of 
holes,  about  six  inches  deep,  and  about  eighteen  inches 
apart,  the  track  being  about  sixteen  inches  wide.  To 
my  surprise,  the  chief  of  the  village,  a  man  in  long 
scarlet  robes,  immediately  dashed  at  a  gallop  down  this 
road,  or  ladder,  as  they  call  it ;  the  Russian  commis- 
sioner followed  him ;  and  I,  thinking  that  it  would  not 
do  for  an  Englishman  to  be  beat  by  a  Russian  or  a 
Turk,  threw  my  bridle  on  my  horse's  neck  and  gallop- 
ed after  them.     Never  did  I  see  such  a  place  to  ride 


42  ARMENIA. 


in!  Down  and  down  we  went,  plunging,  sliding, 
scrambling  in  and  out  of  the  deep  holes,  the  snow  fly- 
ing up  like  spray  around  us,  to  meet  its  brother  snow 
that  was  falling  from  the  sky.  It  was  wonderful  how 
the  horses  kept  their  feet ;  they  burst  out  into  perspi- 
ration as  if  it  had  been  summer.  I  was  as  hot  as  fire 
with  the  exertion.  Still  down  we  went,  headlong  as 
it  seemed,  till  at  last  I  found  myself  sliding  and  bound- 
ing on  level  ground,  and,  rushing  over  some  horses 
which  were  standing  in  an  open  space,  I  discovered  that 
I  was  in  a  village,  and  was  presently  helped  off  my 
panting  horse  by  the  gentleman  in  the  red  pelisse,  who 
showed  the  way  into  a  cow-stable,  the  usual  place  in 
which  we  put  up  at  night.  Thus  ended  the  most  ex- 
traordinary piece  of  horsemanship  I  ever  joined  in.  It 
was  not  wonderful,  perhaps,  for  the  rider,  but  how  the 
horses  kept  their  feet,  and  how  they  had  strength 
enough  to  undergo  such  a  wonderful  series  of  leaps 
and  plunges,  out  of  one  hole  into  another,  appeared 
quite  astonishing  to  me.  The  next  day  we  proceeded 
to  Erzeroom,  and  at  a  village  about  two  hours'  distance 
we  were  met  by  all  the  authorities  of  the  city  on  horse- 
back. Some  horses  with  magnificent  housings  were 
sent  by  the  Pasha  for  the  principal  personages,  and  we 
rode  into  the  town  in  a  sort  of  procession,  accompanied 
by  perhaps  200  well-mounted  cavaliers  caracoling  and 
prancing  in  every  direction. 


' .  :  '/  i , 


SUBTERRANEAN    DWELLINGS.  45 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Consulate  at  Erzeroom. — Subterranean  Dwellings. — Snow-blind- 
ness. —  Effects  of  the  severe  Climate.  —  The  City  :  its  Population, 
Defenses,  and  Buildings. — Our  House  and  Household. — Armenian 
Country-houses. — The  Ox-stable. 

We  were  hospitably  entertained  at  the  British  Con- 
sulate till  the  Pasha  could  get  a  house  prepared  for  us 
to  occupy  during  our  stay ;  but,  as  Mr.  Pepys  says, 
"  Lord,  to  see !"  what  a  place  this  is  at  Erzeroom !  I 
have  never  seen  or  heard  of  any  thing  the  least  like  it. 
It  is  totally  and  entirely  different  from  any  thing  I  ever 
saw  before.  As  the  whole  view,  whichever  way  one 
looked,  was  wrapped  in  interminable  snow,  we  had  not 
at  first  any  very  distinct  idea  of  the  nature  of  the 
ground  that  there  might  be  underneath;  the  tops  of 
the  houses  being  flat,  the  snow-covered  city  did  not  re- 
semble any  other  town,  but  appeared  more  like  a  great 
rabbit-warren;  many  of  the  houses  being  wholly  or 
partly  subterranean,  the  doors  looked  like  burrows.  In 
the  neighborhood  of  the  consulate  (very  comfortable 
within,  from  the  excellent  arrangements  of  Mr.  Brant) 
there  were  several  large  heaps  and  mounds  of  earth, 
and  it  was  difficult  to  the  uninitiated  to  discriminate 
correctly  as  to  which  was  a  house  and  which  was  a 
heap  of  soil  or  stones.  Streets,  glass  windows,  green 
doors  with  brass  knockers,  areas,  and  chimney-pots, 
were  things  only  known  from  the  accounts  of  travel- 
ers from  the  distant  regions  where  such  things  are  used. 


46  ARMENIA. 


Yery  few  people  were  about,  the  bulk  of  the  population 
hybernating  at  this  time  of  the  year  in  their  strange 
holes  and  burrows.  The  bright  colors  of  the  Oriental 
dresses  looked  to  my  eye  strangely  out  of  place  in  the 
cold,  dirty  snow;  scarlet  robes,  jackets  embroidered 
with  gold,  brilliant  green  and  white  costumes,  were  as- 
sociated in  my  mind  with  a  hot  sun,  a  dry  climate,  and 
fine  weather.  A  bright  sky  there  was,  with  the  sun 
shining  away  as  if  it  was  all  right,  but  his  rays  gave 
no  heat,  and  only  put  your  eyes  out  with  its  glare  upon 
the  snow.  This  glare  has  an  extraordinary  effect,  some- 
times bringing  on  a  blindness  called  snow-blindness, 
and  raising  blisters  on  the  face  precisely  like  those 
which  are  produced  by  exposure  to  extreme  heat.  An- 
other inconvenience  has  an  absurd  effect :  the  breath, 
out  of  doors,  congeals  upon  the  mustaches  and  beard, 
and  speedily  produces  icicles,  which  prevent  the  possi- 
bility of  opening  the  mouth.  My  mustaches  were  con- 
verted each  day  into  two  sharp  icicles,  and  if  any  thing 
came  against  them  it  hurt  horribly ;  and  those  who 
wore  long  beards  were  often  obliged  to  commence  the 
series  of  Turkish  civilities  in  dumb  show ;  their  faces 
being  fixtures  for  the  time,  they  were  not  able  to  speak 
till  their  beards  thawed.  A  curious  phenomenon  might 
also  be  observed  upon  the  door  of  one  of  the  subterra- 
nean stables  being  opened,  when,  although  the  day  was 
clear  and  fine  without,  the  warm  air  within  immedi- 
ately congealed  into  a  little  fall  of  snow ;  this  might  be 
seen  in  great  perfection  every  morning  on  the  first  open- 
ing of  the  outer  door,  when  the  house  was  warm  from 
its  having  been  shut  up  all  night. 

Erzeroom  is  situated  in  an  extensive  elevated  plain, 


DEFENSES    OF    ERZEROOM.  47 

about  thirty  miles  long  and  about  ten  wide,  lying  be- 
tween 7000  and  8000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 
It  is  surrouride.4  on  all  sides  with  the  tops  of  lofty 
mountains,  many  of  which  are  covered  with  eternal 
snow.  The  city  is  said  to  contain  between  30,000  and 
40,000  inhabitants,  but  I  do  not  myself  think  that  it 
contains  much  more  than  20,000 ;  this  I  had  no  cor- 
rect means  of  ascertaining.  The  city  is  said  to  have 
been,  and  probably  was,  more  populous  before  the  dis- 
asters of  the  last  Russian  war.  It  stands  on  a  small 
hill,  or  several  hills,  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain  with  a 
double  top,  called  Deve  Dagh,  the  Camel  Mountain. 
The  original  city  is  nearly  a  square,  and  is  surrounded 
by  a  double  wall  with  peculiarly-shaped  towers,  a  sort 
of  pentagon,  about  20  towers  on  each  side,  except  on 
the  south  side,  where  a  great  part  of  the  walls  is  fallen 
down.  "Within  these  walls,  on  an  elevated  mound,  is 
the  smaller  square  of  the  citadel,  where  there  are  some 
curious  ancient  buildings  and  a  prison,  which  I  must 
describe  afterward;  a  ditch,  where  it  is  not  filled  up 
with  rubbish  and  neglecTTsurrounds  the  walls  of  the 
city ;  and  beyond  this  are  the  suburbs,  where  the  great- 
er part  of  the  population  reside.  Beyond  this,  an  im- 
mense work  was  accomplished  as  a  defense  against  the 
Russian  invaders.  This  is  an  enormous  fosse,  so  large, 
and  deep,  and  wide,  as  to  resemble  a  ravine  in  many 
places.  It  was  some  time  before  I  was  aware  that 
this  was  an  artificial  work.  As  there  are  no  ramparts, 
walls,  or  breastworks  on  the  inner  side  of  that  im- 
mense excavation,  it  can  have  been  of  no  more  use 
than  if  it  did  not  exist,  and  did  not,  I  believe,  stop  any 
of  the  Russians   for  five   minutes.      They  probably 


48  ARMENIA. 

marched  down  one  side  and  up  the  other,  supposing  it 
to  be  a  pleasing  natural  valley,  useful  as  a  promenade 
in  fine  weather,  and  the  prodigious  labor  employed  on 
such  a  work  must  have  been  entirely  thrown  away. 

The  palace  of  the  Pasha,  that  of  the  Cadi  and  other 
functionaries,  are  within  the  walls  of  the  town.  The 
doorways  are  the  only  parts  of  the  houses  on  which 
any  architectural  ornaments  are  displayed ;  many  of 
these  are  of  carved  stone,  with  inscriptions  in  Turkish 
beautifully  cut  above  them.  There  are  said  to  be  sev- 
enteen baths,  but  none  of  them  are  particularly  hand- 
some, Inougfr  the  principal  apartment  is  covered  with 
a  dome,  like  those  in  finer  towns.  The  mosques 
amount,  it  is  said,  to  forty-five  :  I  never  saw  half  so 
many  myself.  Many  of  them  are  insignificant  edifices. 
The  principal  one,  or^ cathedral,. as  it  may  be  called,  is 
of  great  size,  its  flat,  turf-covered  roof  supported  by  va- 
rious thick  piers  and  pointed  arches.  The  finest  build- 
ings are  several  ancient  tombs  :  these  are  cireular  tow- 
ers, from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  with  con- 
ical stone  roofs,  beautifully  built  and  ornamented. 
There  must  be  twenty  or  thirty  of  these  very  singular 
edifices,  whose  dates  I  was  unable  to  ascertain ;  they 
probably  vary  from  the  twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, judging  from  a  comparison  of  their  ornamental 
work  with  Saracenic  buildings  in  other  parts  of  the 
world. 

The  most  beautiful  buildings  of  Erzeroom  are  two 
ancient  medresses  or  colleges,  or  perhaps  they  may  be 
considered  more  as  a  kind  of  ahu&Jieuses,  built  for  the 
accommodation  of  a  certain  number  of  Mollahs,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  pray  around  the  tomb  of  the  founder, 


BU1LD1KGS    OF    KRZEROO.M. 


49 


adjoining  to  which  they  are  erected.  One  of  these 
stands  immediately  to  the  left  hand  on  entering  the 
principal  gateway  of  the  town ;  above  its  elaborately- 
sculptured  door  are  two  most  beautiful  minarets, 
known  by  the  name  of  the  iki  chifteh.  These  are  built 
of  an  exceedingly  fine  brick,  and  are  fluted  like  Ionic 
columns,  the  edges  of  the  flutings  being  composed  of 
turquoise-blue  bricks,  which  produces  on  the  capitals 
or  galleries,  as  well  as  on  the  shafts,  the  appearance  of 
a  bright  azure  pattern  on  a  dark-colored  ground.  The 
roof  of  this  very  beautiful  building  has  fallen  in,  but 
the  delicacy  of  the  arabesques,  cut  in  many  places  in 
alto-relief  in  a  very  hard  stone,  would  excite  admira- 
tion in  India,  and  equals  the  most  famous  works  of 
Italy.  The  other  medresse  is  in  a  still  worse  condi- 
tion, a  great  cannon-foundry  having  been  erected  in  the 
middle  of  it.  The  whole  building  is  broken,  smoked, 
and  injured ;  still,  what  remains  shows  how  fine  it  must 
have  been. 

There  are  one  or  two  Greek  churches  and  two  Ar-  \ 
menian  churches  here,  both  very  small,  dark,  cramped 
places,  with  immensely  thick  walls  and  hewn-stone 
roofs.  They  appear  to  be  of  great  antiquity,  but  can 
boast  of  no  other  merit.  Adjoining  the  principal  one, 
in  which  is  a  famous  miraculous  picture  of  St.  Greorge, 
they  were  building  a  large  and  handsome  church,  which 
is  now  completed,  in  the  Basilica  form,  with  an  arched 
stone  roof.  Cut  stone  being  very  expensive,  and  in- 
deed, from  the  want  of  good  masons,  very  difficult  to 
procure,  the  priests  bethought  themselves  of  a  happy 
expedient  to  secure  square  hewn  stone  for  the  corners, 
door- way,  windows,  &c,  of  the  new  cathedral.  They 
C 


50  ARMENIA. 


told  their  flock  that,  as  the  ancient  tomb-stones  were 
of  no  use  to  the  departed,  it  would  be  a  meritorious  act 
in  the  living  to  bring  them  to  assist  in  the  erection  of 
the  church.  They  managed  this  so  well,  that  every 
one  brought  on  his  own  back,  or  at  his  own  expense, 
the  tombstones  of  his  ancestors,  and  those  were  grieved 
and  offended  who  could  not  gain  admission  for  the  tomb- 
stones of  their  families  to  complete  a  window  or  sup- 
port a  wall.  The  work  advanced  rapidly  during  the 
summer,  and  any  large,  flat  slabs  of  stone  were  re- 
served for  the  covering  of  the  roof.  It  promised  to  be, 
and  I  hear  now  is,  a  handsome  church,  strong  and  solid 
enough  to  resist  the  awful  climate,  and  the  snow  which 
lies  there  for  months  every  year.  The  Armenian  in- 
scriptions and  emblems  on  the  stones  have  a  singular 
effect ;  but  I  think,  under  the  circumstances,  the  priests 
were  quite  right  to  build  up  with  the  tombstones  of  the 
dead  a  house  of  prayer  for  those  about  to  die. 

In  course  of  time  a  house  was  ready  for  our  recep- 
tion :  though  not  so  large  as  those  of  some  of  the  great 
authorities,  it  was  one  of  the  largest  class  of  houses  in 
Erzeroom,  and  a  description  of  its  arrangements  will 
convey  an  idea  of  what  most  of  the  others  were.  It 
was  situated  in  a  very  good  position  on  the  top  of  a 
hill,  close  to  the  house  of  the  Russian  commissioner, 
and  on  the  same  side  of  the  town  as  those  of  the  En- 
glish and  Russian  consuls.  From  its  small,  doubly- 
glazed  windows  we  looked,  over  a  narrow  valley  cover- 
ed with  houses,  on  the  walls  and  tower  of  the  citadel, 
which  stood  on  the  hill  directly  opposite.  The  walls 
and  towers,  and  the  principal  gateway  of  the  town, 
with  its  two  graceful  minarets,  to  the  left  hand,  and  a 


l  ^       or 


ITY 


$RNIA 


OUR   OWN   HOUSE.  53 

distant  prospect  of  the  great  plain  and  the  River  Eu- 
phrates, and  the  mountains  over  which  we  had  travel- 
ed, to  the  right,  completed  our  view,  which  was,  per- 
haps, the  best  enjoyed  by  any  house  in  the  place.  Our 
house,  like  most  of  the  others,  was  built  with  great  so- 
lidity, of  rough  stone,  with  large  blocks  at  the  corners ; 
the  roof  was  flat,  and  covered  with  green  turf.  The 
windows  were  small,  like  port-holes,  but  the  door  was 
a  large  arch,  through  which  we  rode  into  the  gloomy, 
sepulchral-looking  hall,  out  of  which  opened  the  stables 
on  the  right  hand,  the  kitchen,  and  offices,  and  some 
other  rooms  on  the  left,  while  in  front  a  dark  staircase 
of  square  stones  and  heavy  beams  looked  as  if  it  had 
tumbled  through  the  ceiling,  and  gave  access  to  the 
upper  floor.  There  was  a  little  garden  or  yard  under 
the  windows,  where  we  planted  vegetables,  and  in  one 
part  of  which  several  English  dogs,  two  Persian  grey- 
hounds, and  an  Armenian  turnspit,  walked  about  in  the 
daytime.  The  railing  between  this  and  the  garden 
part  of  the  yard  was  a  triumph  of  art,  accomplished  by 
a  Turkish  guard,  who  turned  his  sword  into  a  plow- 
share when  not  wanted  to  look  terrific.  We  had  also 
nineteen  lam^-who  grazed  on  the  top  of  the  highest 
part  of  the  house,  where  they  were  carried  up  every 
morning,  except  occasionally  when  there  was  such  a 
wind  that  they  would  be  in  danger  of  being  blown 
away.  We  had  I  know  not  how  many  sheep  with 
large  tails ;  these  took  a  walk  every  day  with  a  shep- 
herd, who  led  out  all  the  sheep  belonging  to  the  inhab- 
itants of  that  part  of  the  town.  Every  house  having  a 
few,  they  are  marked,  and  all  come  home  every  even- 
ing to  their  respective  houses,  and  go  out  again  the 


54 


ARMENIA. 


next  morning,  and  eat  what  they  can  get  upon  the 
mountains.  Our  household  contained,  besides  our- 
selves and  servants,  one  white  Persian  cat,  with  a  spot 
on  his  back,  and  his  tail  painted  pink  with  hennah 
(this  race,  with  long,  silky  hair  falling  to  the  ground  as 
it  walks  along,  comes  from  Van) ;  five  pigeons,  and  one 
hen,  the  rest  having  fallen  victims  to  the  rapacity  of 
mankind ;  and  a  lemming, #  who  lived  in  a  brass  foot- 
tub  and  ate  biscuits.  This  last  beast  was  sadly  fright- 
ened by  a  mouse  which  I  put  into  his  habitation  one 
day,  and  which  made  use  of  his  back  to  jump  out,  after 
receiving  a  severe  bite  in  the  tail.  He  generally  slept 
all  day,  and  took  a  small  walk  in  the  tub  in  the  even- 
ing. 

All  the  building  except  the  hall  and  stable  had  a 
garden  on  the  roof,  that  part  only  being  two  stories 
high.  The  kitchen  and  some  of  the  other  rooms  were 
Ut-hy-  a  -skylight^  the  earth  at  the  back  of  them  being 
on  a  level  with  their  ceilings.  The  walls  of  the  upper 
floor  were  not  exactly  over  those  below,  but  were  sup- 
ported by  immense  beams,  some  of  which  had  given 
way,  and '  the  principal  room  leaned  over  to  the  left 
frightfully.  Those  rooms  which  are  lit  by  windows 
have  two  rows  of  them  one  above  the  other,  except  the 
dining-room  and  ante-room,  which  had  only  one  row, 
too  high  from  the  floor  to  look  out  of,  but  very  conve- 
nient for  looking  into,  from  the  upper  garden  and  the 
terrace  of  the  next  house.  The  rooms  had  all  white- 
washed walls,  wooden  flat  ceilings  curiously  carved 

*  Those  who  take  an  interest  in  natural  history  should  read  the  ac- 
counts of  the  extraordinary  migrations  of  the  lemmings,  which  occur 
periodically  in  Norway,  after  a  fixed  number  of  years. 


ARMENIAN  COUNTRY  HOUSES.     55 

and  painted.  On  the  floors  there  was  blue  cloth  in- 
stead of  carpets,  and  divans  of  red  cloth.  A  few  chairs, 
and  some  lumbering  deal  tables,  with  covers  on  them, 
at  which  we  wrote,  concluded  our  list  of  furniture  and 
"  genuine  effects."  The  great  difficulty  was  the  eat- 
ing and  drinking  part  of  the  arrangements.  Every- 
thing except  bread  and  meat  came  on  horses  from  Con- 
stantinople, and  about  one  third  of  the  bottles  brought 
from  thence  were  usually  broken.  G-lass,  for  the  win- 
dows, was  a  curious  and  expensive  luxury,  oiled  paper 
being  generally  used,  with  a  little  bit  of  real  glass  to 
peep  out  of  in  each,  or  sometimes  only  in  one  window. 
Wood  also  was  very  dear,  as  there  were  no  trees  with- 
in a  distance  of  thirty  hours.  The  climate  is  not  too 
cold  for  the  growth  of  timber,  I  should  think,  for  there 
were  a  few  poplars  in  the  yards  near  the  houses,  but 
the  people  are  too  improvident  to  plant  trees,  and,  ex- 
cept some  prodigiously  large  cabbages,  horticulture  is 
not  much  practiced  near  the  town. 

The  country  houses  of  Armenia  are  constructed 
somewhat  differently  from  those  of  the  towns.  When 
a  man  wishes — I  can  not  call  it  to  build  a  house,  or 
erect  a  house,  or  set  up  a  house,  as  none  of  these  terms 
are  applicable — but  when  a  house  is  to  be  construct- 
ed, the  following  is  the  way  in  which  it  is  set  about. 
A  space  of  ground  is  marked  out,  perhaps  nearly  an 
English  acre  in  extent;  then  the  whole  space  is__ex- 
cavated  to  the  depth  of  about  five  feet :  one  part  of  the 
excavation  is  set  apart  for  the  great  cow-stable;  this 
may  be  fifty  or  one  hundred  feet  long,  and  nearly  as 
wide.  Having  got  so  far,  some  trees  are  the  next  re- 
quisite; these  trees  being  cut  down,  the  trunks  are 


fj(3  ARMENIA. 


chopped  into  lengths  of  eight  or  nine  feet,  the  general 
height  of  the  rooms,  and  are  placed  in  two  or  four 
rows,  to  be  used  as  columns  down  the  great  stable ;  the 
larger  branches,  wiiEHoul  being  squared  or  shaped,  are 
laid  across  from  pillar  to  pillar  as  beams ;  the  smaller 
branches  are  laid  across  these,  the  twigs  on  the  top, 
till  the  entire  trees  are  used  up ;  the  twigs  are  some- 
times tied  up  in  fagots,  sometimes  not :  over  this  is 
spread  some  of  the  earth  that  was  excavated  from  be- 
low ;  this  is  well  trodden  down,  then  more  earth  is  add- 
ed, and  on  the  top  of  all  is  laid  the  turf  which  formed 
the  surface  of  the  soil  before  it  was  moved.  Sound 
the  stable,  in  no  particular  order,  smaller  rooms  are 
formed ;  if  they  are  large,  their  roofs  are  supported  by 
columns  like  the  stable.  In  a  large  house  there  are 
often  two  stables.  The  space  of  ground  taken  up  by  a 
rich  man's  house  is  prodigious,  the  turfed  roof  forming 
a  small  field.  The  lesser  rooms  in  this  subterranean 
habitation  are  divided  from  the  stable  and  from  each 
other  by  rough  stone  walls  well  filled  up  with  clay  or 
mud  ;  their  ceilings  are  contrived  by  laying  beams 
across  each  other,  two  along  and  two  across,  in  the 
form  of  a  low  pyramid,  so  that  the  ceiling  is  a  kind  of 
low  square  dome :  the  smaller  rooms  form  store-rooms 
and  apartments  for  the  women.  Each  room  has  a 
rough  stone  fire-place  opposite  the  door ;  and  in  the 
roof,  generally  over  the  door,  there  is  one  window  about 
eighteen  inches  square,  glazed  with  a  piece  of  oiled  pa- 
per. Outside,  these  windows  look  like  large  mole-hills, 
with  a  bit  of  plaster  on  one  side  surrounding  the  oiled 
paper,  or  glass,  which  transmits  the  light.  Inside,  the 
window  is  perceived  at  the  end  of  a  funnel,  widening 


ARMENIAN  COUNTRY  HOUSES. 


57 


greatly  toward  the  room,  and  contrived  so  as  to  throw 
the  light  to  the  centre  of  the  apartment,  opposite  the 
fire-place,  where  a  fire  of  tezek,  or  dried  cow-dung  and 
chopped  straw,  is  constantly  smouldering.  Over  the 
chimney-piece  hangs  an  iron  lamp  of  simple  construc- 
tion, which,  with  the  help  of  the  fire,  produces  a  dim 
light  in  the  long  nights  of  winter.  There  is  a  divan, 
usually  covered  with  most  beautiful  Koordish  carpets, 
which  last  forever,  on  each  side  of  the  fire-place ;  and 
large  wooden  pegs,  projecting  from  the  walls,  serve 
to  hang  up  guns,  pistols,  cloaks,  and  any  thing  else. 
Some  of  these  rooms  are  rather  roughly  pretty  in  ap- 
pearance ;  the  floors  are  covered  with  tekke,  a  thick 
gray-feitpaird,  among  smart  people,  Persian  carpets  are 
laid  over  the  felt,  their  beautiful  colors  producing  a 
rich  and  comfortable  effect.  About  half  way  up  the 
chimney  is  a  wooden  door  or  damper,  which  is  opened 
and  shut  by  means  of  a  string ;  and  when  it  is  very 
cold  weather,  and  they  want  to  be  snug  and  fusty 
down  below,  this  door  is  shut,  and  the  room  becomes 
as  hot  as  an  oven ;  the  chimney  does  not  rise  more 
than  two  feet  above  ground,  and  has  a  large  flat  stone 
on  the  top  to  keep  the  snow  from  falling  in,  as  well 
as  the  lambs  and  children ;  the  smoke  escapes  by 
apertures  on  the  sides  just  below  the  coping-stone. 
The  chimneys  look  like  toadstools  from  the  outside, 
rising  a  little  above  the  snow  or  the  grass  which  grows 
upon  the  roof.  These  subterranean  habitations  are 
constructed,  not  on  the  side  of  a  hill,  but  on  the  side 
of  a  gentle  slope  ;  and  all  the  earth  excavated  for  the 
house  is  thrown  back  again  upon  the  roof  in  such  a 
manner  that  on  three  sides  there  is  often  no  sign  of 
C  2 


58  ARMENIA. 


any  dwelling  existing  underneath.  The  entrance  is 
on  thejower  side  of  the  slope,  and  there  the  mound  is 
often  visible,  as  it  is  raised  four  or  five  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  hill-side.  There  are  no  fences  to  keep 
people  off  the  roof,  which  has  no  appearance  different 
from  the  rest  of  the  country.  It  is  often  only  the  dirt 
opposite  the  doors,  the  cattle,  and  people  standing 
about,  which  gives  information  of  a  small  village  be- 
ing present,  particularly  during  the  eight  months  of 
snow,  and  ice,  and  intense  cold,  when  no  one  stirs 
abroad  except  for  matters  of  importance.  When  a 
house  is  ruined  and  deserted,  these  holes  are  some- 
times rather  dangerous,  as  the  horse  you  are  riding 
may  put  his  foot  into  an  old  chimney  and  break  his 
leg,  there  being  very  frequently  no  appearance  of  a 
habitation  below,  while  you  are  passing  through  the 
open,  desolate  country,  of  which  the  roof  seems  to  be  a 
part.  There  are  stories,  perhaps  founded  on  fact,  of 
hungry  thieves  lifting  the  flat  stone  off  the  top  of  the 
chimney,  and  fishing  up  the  kettle  in  which  the  sup- 
per was  stewing  over  the  fire  below  with  a  hooked 
stick — a  feat  which  would  not  be  at  all  difficult  if  the 
cook  was  thinking  of  something  else,  as  sometimes  will 
happen  even  in  the  best-regulated  families. 

The  most  curious  and  remarkable  part  of  the  house 
is  the  great  ox-stable,  which  often  holds  some  scores 
of  cattle.  Out  of  this  stable  they  donot  stir,  frequent- 
ly, during  the  whole  winter  season,  and  it  Is"  the  breath 
and  heat  of  these  animals  which  warm  the  house ;  be- 
sides which,  they  manufacture  all  the  fuel  for  the  es- 
tablishment :  they  are  fed  upon  straw,  bruised  to  small 
bits  by  the  sledge  which  is  driven  round  the  threshing- 


ARMENIAN  COUNTRY  HOUSES.      59 


floor  to  separate  the  corn  from  the  husk  after  harvest 
time.  In  one  corner  of  this  huge,  dim  stable,  near  the 
entrance  door,  a  wooden  platform  is  raised  three  feet 
from  the  ground ;  two  sides  of  it  are  bounded  by  the 
stone  wall  of  the  house,  in  one  of  which,  opposite  the 
door,  is  the  fire-place  ;  the  other  two  sides  of  the  square 
platform  have  open  wooden  rails  to  keep  off  the  cows. 
This  original  contrivance  is  the  salemlik,  or  reception- 
room,  where  the  master  sits,  and  where  he  entertains  his 
guests^jvrhoj  as  they  stumble  into  the  obscure  den  from 
the  glare  of  the  sun  shining  on  the  snow  outside,  are 
received  with  a  jell  by  all  the  dogs1  who  live  under  the 
platform.  This  place  is  fitted  up  with  divans  and  car- 
pets ;  arms  and  saddles  hang  against  the  walls ;  the 
horses  of  the  chief  are  tethered  nearest  to  the  rails,  the 
donkeys  and  cows  further  off.  Among  the  horses  there 
is  always  an  immense  fat  tame  sheep ;  this  is  a  uni- 
versal custom  in  every  stable  in  Turkey,  under  or  above 
ground.  Among  some  of  the  Koordish  tribes,  a  young 
wild  boar  is  kept  in  the  stable  with  the  horses — a  re- 
markaB!e*custom  among  Mohammedans,  who  consider 
the  whole  race  of  swine  as  unclean  beasts  ;  Jthis  is  the 
only  case  in  which  they  are  tolerated.  A  small  flock 
of  other  sheep  are  sometimes  scampering  about,  or  kept 
from  doing  so,  among  the  cows ;  chickens  peck  in  the 
litter,  and  several  grave  cats  have  their  allotted  places 
on  the  divans  of  the  chief,  his  wife,  and  others  of  his 
family.  A  vacant,  that  is,  cowless  space,  is  left  be- 
tween the  steps  leading  up  to  the  platform  and  the  en- 
trance door  of  the  house  ;  this  part  answers  to  the  en- 
trance hall,  as  man  and  beast  pass  through  it  on  com- 
ing in  or  going  out,  immediately  before  the  eyes  of  the 


(50  ARMENIA. 


master  of  the  house.  From  hence  a  sloping  passage, 
about  six  feet  wide,  leads  to  the  open  air ;  it  has  an 
outer  door  at  the  upper  end,  and  an  inner  door  below : 
this  passage  may  be  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  long.  The 
outer  door  is  a  common  strong  wooden  one,  but  the  in- 
ner doors  all  over  the  house  are  as  singular  as  the  rest 
of  the  arrangements,  The  house-door  is  of  the  usual 
size  for  the  cows  and  horses  to  pass  through,  the  others 
are  not  more  than  five  feet  high ;  they  are  constructed 
in  the  following  manner :  the  bare  wooden  valve  is 
first  covered  with  ketche  or  felt,  and  on  the  inside  the 
skin  of  a  sheep,  with  its  legs  and  arms  on,  just  in  the 
shape  in  which  it  came  off  the  animal  when  it  was 
skinned,  being  dyed  red,  is  nailed  over  the  felt.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  door,  down  the  middle,  is  a  long 
square  pipe  or  box,  in  which  hangs  a  heavy  log  of  wood, 
attached  to  a  cord  fixed  to  the  upper  part  of  the  door- 
case, which  keeps  the  door  shut,  as  it  swings  to  again 
after  it  has  been  opened,  and  keeps  out  the  drafts,  and 
keeps  in  the  warm  air  generated  by  cows,  fires,  and 
lamps,  so  that  the  atmosphere  is  always  temperate 
within,  while  the  cold  is  such  without  that  men  are 
frozen  to  death  if  they  stand  still  even  for  a  short  time 
in  the  rigorous  climate*of  an  Armenian  winter. 


NARROW    ESCAPE.  Q\ 


CHAPTER  IY. 

Narrow  Escape  from  Suffocation. — Death  of  Noori  Effendi. — A  good 
Shot. — History  of  Mirza  Tekee. — Persian  Ideas  of  the  Principles  of 
Government. — The  "  Blood-drinker." — Massacre  at  Kerbela. — Sanc- 
tity of  the  Place. — History  of  Hossein. — Attack  on  Kerbela,  and  De- 
feat of  the  Persians. — Good  Effects  of  Commissioners'  Exertions. 

The  first  aspect  of  affairs  at  Erzeroom  was  not  very 
satisfactory  in  any  way.  The  cold  and  dismal  weath- 
er was  enough  to  prevent  all  enjoyment  out  of  doors, 
and  in-doors  we  had  little  cause  of  rejoicing.  On  first 
taking  possession  of  our  house,  my  companions  had  the 
narrowest  possible  escape  of  death  from  suffocation. 
The  grooms  in  the  stable  below  the  drawing-room  had 
lit  an  immense  fire  of  charcoal,  not  for  any  particular 
object  beyond  that  common  to  all  servants  of  all  coun- 
tries, that  of  wasting  their  master's  goods,  which  they 
had  not  to  pay  for  themselves.  The  fumes  from  the 
charcoal  penetrated  the  ceiling,  when,  most  fortunately, 
the  Russian  commissioner  came  in,  and,  finding  his 
two  English  friends  in  a  half- stupefied  state,  helped 
them  out  of  the  room  on  to  the  terrace,  where  they 
both  fell  down  fainting  on  the  snow,  and  were  only  re- 
covered after  some  time  and  difficulty.  If  the  Russian 
commissioner  had  not  arrived  so  opportunely,  they 
would  soon  have  perished.  I  did  not  participate  in  this 
risk,  because  I  was  laid  up  at  the  Consulate  with  an 
attack  of  fever,  which  effectually  prevented  my  moving 
to  my  own  house. 


Q2  A  R  M  E  N  I  A. 


Another  misfortune  occurred  almost  at  the  same  pe- 
riod. Noori  Effendi,  the  Turkish  plenipotentiary,  died 
suddenly  of  apoplexy  in  his  hath ;  he  had  heen  embas- 
sador in  London  and  at  Vienna.  All  prospect  of  get- 
ting on  with  our  affairs  was  put  off  by  this  unfortunate 
circumstance.  Subsequently,  Enveri  Effendi,  formerly 
secretary  to  Noori,  was  appointed  in  his  place,  but  he 
did  not  arrive  for  some  time  after  the  death  of  his  for- 
mer chief. 

Mirza  Jaffer,  an  old  acquaintance  of  mine  when  he 
was  embassador  from  Persia  to  the  Porte,  was  too  un- 
well to  leave  Tabriz,  and  Mirza  Tekee  was  appointed 
Persian  plenipotentiary  instead.  On  his  arrival  within 
sight  of  Erzeroom  from  Persia,  all  the  great  people,  ex- 
cept the  Pasha  and  the  commissioners,  went  out  on 
horseback  to  meet  him,  and  accompany  him  on  his  en- 
try into  the  town.  There  was  a  great  concourse  and 
a  prodigious  firing  of  guns  at  full  gallop,  which,  as  the 
guns  are  generally  loaded  with  ball  cartridge,  bought 
ready  made  in  the  bazaar,  though  intended  as  an  honor, 
is  a  somewhat  dangerous  display.  Unable  to  resist  so 
picturesque  a  sight,  I  had  ridden  out  on  the  Persian 
road,  though  I  did  not  join  the  escort,  and,  having  re- 
turned, I  was  walking  up  and  down  on  the  roof  of  the 
house,  watching  the  crowds  passing  in  the  valley  below, 
and  looking  at  the  great  guns  of  the  citadel,  which  the 
soldiers  were  firing  as  a  salute.  They  fired  very  well, 
in  very  good  time,  but  I  observed  several  petty  officers 
and  a  number  of  men  busily  employed  at  one  gun,  the 
last  to  the  left  hand  near  the  corner  of  the  battery. 
At  length  this  gun  was  loaded.  A  prodigious  deal  of 
peeping  and  pointing  took  place  out  of;  the  embrasure^ 


MIRZ  A    TEKEE.  53 


and,  just  as  I  was  turning  in  my  walk,  tang  went  the 
cannon,  and  I. was  covered  with  dust  from  something 
which  struck  the  ground  in  the  yard  in  a  line  below 
my  feet.  On  looking  down  to  see  what  this  could  be, 
I  saw  a  ball  stuck  in  the  earth:  the  soldiers  had  all 
disappeared  from  the  ramparts  of  the  citadel,  and  I 
found  they  had  been  taking  a  shot  at  the  British  com- 
missioner. A  very  good  shot  it  was  too,  exactly  in  the 
line,  but  the  ball,  not  being  heavy  enough,  had  fallen  a 
little  short,  so  I  was  missed.  They  had  manufactured 
a  ball  with  a  large  stone,  wound  round  with  rope  to 
make  it  fit  the  gun,  to  shoot  at  the  Frank,  and  that 
was  the  occasion  of  all  the  peeping  and  crowding  of 
the  men  round  the  gun  which  I  had  observed. 

As  Mirza  Tekee  is  now  no  more,  and  he  was  beyond 
all  comparison  the  most  interesting  of  those  assembled 
at  the  congress  of  Erzeroom,  I  will  give  a  short  account 
of  his  history.  Mirza  Tekee  was  the  son  of  the  cook 
of  Bahman  Meerza,  brother  of  Mohammed  Shah,  and 
governor  of  the  province  of  Tabriz.  The  cook's  little 
boy  was  brought  up  with  the  children  of  his  master  and 
educated  with  them ;  being  a  clever  boy,  as  soon  as  he 
was  old  enough  he  was  put  into  the  office  of  accounts, 
under  the  commander-in-chief,  the  famous  Emir  Ni- 
zam, who  was  employed  in  drilling  the  Persian  army 
in  the  European  style.  Tekee  became  Vizir  ul  Nizam, 
or  adjutant  general,  in  course  of  time,  under  the  old 
Emir  Nizam,  and  also  amassed  great  wealth ;  and  as 
the  Shah  did  not  like  the  idea  of  paying  the  expenses 
of  his  plenipotentiary — "  base  is  the  slave  that  pays" — 
he  sent  Mirza  Tekee  to  Erzeroom  with  many  flattering 
speeches  and  promises,  none  of  which  he  intended  to 


g4  ARMENIA. 


fulfill.  The  cunning  old  prime  minister,  Hadji  Meerza 
Agassi,  who  was  sedulously  employed  in  feathering  his 
own  nest,  was  jealous  of  Mirza  Tekee,  and  very  glad  to 
get  him  safe  out  of  the  way.  The  Turks  and  Persians, 
as  every  body  knows,  hate  each  other  religiously,  which 
seems  always  to  be  the  worst  sort  of  hatred.  The 
Soonis  and  the  Shiahs  are,  as  it  were,  Protestants  and 
Papists  in  the  Mohammedan  faith ;  and  if  these  two 
countries  are  ever  reconciled  for  a  time,  the  smoulder- 
ing flame  is  sure  to  break  out  again  at  the  first  con- 
venient opportunity,  and  it  will  do  so  to  the  end  of  time. 
In  1845,  the  Turks,  who  disliked  Mirza  Tekee  with 
more  than  common  aversion,  from  his  dignified  bear- 
ing and  stately  manners,  gave  out  various  accusations 
against  him  and  some  members  of  his  household.  A 
fanatical  mob  of  many  thousand  indignant  Soonis  sur- 
rounded all  that  quarter  of  the  town,  attacked  the  Per- 
sian plenipotentiary's  house,  which  was  besieged  for 
some  hours,  and  volleys  after  volleys  of  rifle-shots  were 
fired  at  the  windows,  while  from  within  Mirza  Tekee 
only  permitted  his  party  to  fire  blank  cartridges.  Izzet 
Pasha,  a  drunken  old  gentleman  of  eighty,  who  had 
succeeded  Kiamili  Pasha  as  governor  of  Erzeroom 
through  the  intrigues  of  Enveri  Effendi,  sat  on  horse- 
back and  looked  on,  and  took  no  part  in  the  disturb- 
ance, though  he  had  all  his  troops,  amounting  to  sev- 
eral thousand  men,  under  arms.  For  this  conduct  he 
was  turned  out  of  his  government,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Bahri  Pasha,  who  in  1847  was  shot  dead  by  one  of  , 
his  own  servants,  of  the  name  of  Delhi  Ibrahim — acci- 
dentally or  not,  does  not  appear. 

Colonel  Williams  did  every  thing  in  his  power  to  as- 


MIRZATEKEE.  55 


sist  Mirza  Tekee,  and  risked  his  life  in  the  affray ;  but 
he  received  no  assistance  from  the  Pasha  or  any  of  the 
authorities,  who  made  no  attempt  to  quell  the  riot. 

The  Turks  swore  they  would  have  blood,  and  that 
one  of  the  Persians  must  be  given  up  to  them  as  a  sac- 
rifice. A  poor  man,  who  had  called  that  morning  to 
say  that  he  was  going  to  Tabriz,  and, would  be  happy 
to  carry  any  letters  or  messages  there,  was  thrown  out 
of  the  window  and  torn  to  pieces  by  the  mob.  Another 
Persian,  a  gentleman,  secretary  to  Mirza  Tekee,  was 
killed  by  a  butcher  the  same  day,  in  another  part  of 
the  town,  where  he  was  walking  in  ignorance  of  the 
disturbance  that  was  going  on.  The  Mirza's  house 
was  pillaged,  the  roof  and  doors  broken  in,  and  every 
thing  destroyed  that  the  mob  could  get  hold  of.  He 
himself  was  only  saved  by  barricading  a  strong  room 
in  a  back  part  of  the  house,  where  he  and  his  servants 
defended  themselves  for  many  hours,  till  the  Turks  dis- 
persed of  their  own  accord.  The  Sultan  afterward 
sent  him  £8000  in  repayment  of  his  losses  in  this  dis- 
graceful outrage. 

In  June,  1847,  after  he  had  signed  the  treaty  of 
peace  and  commerce  between  Turkey  and  Persia  with 
Enveri  Effendi  and  the  British  and  Russian  Commis- 
sioners, he  returned  to  Tabriz.  On  the  death  of  the 
Emir  Nizam,  he  succeeded  to  his  office  of  commander- 
in-chief.  During  the  last  illness  of  Mohammed  Shah, 
Bahman  Meerza  had  been  intriguing  in  hopes  of  suc- 
ceeding to  the  throne  ;  but  being  unsuccessful,  and  be- 
ing also  found  out,  he  escaped  to  Teflis,  where  he  still  \ 
resides,  and  is  protected  by  the  Czar,  who  keeps  him  in 
terrorem  over  the  present  Shah,  who  may  be  dethroned 


66  ARMENIA. 


any  day,  in  which  case  Bahman  Meerza  is  all  ready  to 
reign  in  his  stead. 

When  Mohammed  Shah,  who  had  done  nothing  all 
his  life  but  shoot  sparrows  with  a  pistol,  departed  from 
this  world,  Mirza  Tekee  marched  the  Persian  army  to 
Teheran,  and  seated  the  young  Prince  Noor  Eddin 
upon  the  throne.  Noor  Eddin  Shah  gave  him  his  sister 
in  marriage :  she  is  said  to  have  been  much  attached 
to  her  husband,  who  also  succeeded  to  the  immense 
territorial  possessions  of  Hadji  Meerza  Agassi,  the  late 
prime  minister  of  Persia.  The  Hadji  had  been  tutor 
to  Mohammed  Shah,  and  became  one  of  the  most  fa- 
mous of  the  Grand  Vizirs  of  that  most  blundering  of 
dynasties.  As  a  matter  of  course,  when  he  became 
rich  enough  he  was  robbed  by  his  master,  having  been 
himself  the  greatest  extortioner  on  record  for  many 
years.  The  Shah  had  allowed  him  to  keep  an  enor- 
mous treasure  in  gold,  silver,  and  jewels,  with  which 
he  retired  to  Kerbela,  where  he  died  in  the  odor  of  sanc- 
tity in  1850. 

Mirza  Tekee  was  now  seated  on  the  highest  pinna- 
cle of  the  temple  of  prosperity.  The  extent  of  the  pos- 
sessions which  the  Shah  had  handed  over  to  him  from 
the  plunder  of  the  Hadji  was  so  great  as  to  be  hardly 
credible,  and,  by  a  judicious  squeezing,  the  towns,  vil- 
lages, and  domains  would  have  yielded  the  revenue  of 
a  petty  king.  However,  all  prime  ministers  are  de- 
tested— that  is,  in  human  nature ;  first,  there  is  the  op- 
posite party  in  politics,  some  of  whom  think  different- 
ly as  to  the  form  and  manner  in  which  the  taxes  should 
be  levied  in  Europe,  the  villages  racked  in  Persia.  All 
— whatever  they  may  think  on  political  subjects — feel 


MIRZATEKEE.  Qj 


sure  they  ought  to  be  in  place,  rather  than  the  party- 
then  in  power  ;  if  to  these  are  added  all  thieves,  rogues, 
revolutionists,  and  those  sorts  of  people,  who  have  a 
natural  antipathy  to  all  government,  law,  or  possession 
of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  any  man  except  the  one  in- 
dividual himself,  he  being  more  jealous  of  his  friend 
than  of  any  other  person,  a  great  mass  of  the  popula- 
tion are  not  only  opposed  to  the  minister  for  the  time 
being,  but  are  in  constant  readiness  to  pull  down  what- 
ever is  above  them,  good,  indifferent,  or  bad. 

It  is  said  that  the  great  enemy  of  Mirza  Tekee  at 
court  was  the  Shah's  mother,  a  lady  who  in  Persia 
and  Turkey  enjoys  an  extraordinary  degree  of  power, 
wealth,  and  dignity.  In  Turkey,  the  Sultana  Yalide 
has  the  right  to  build  a  royal  mosque,  and  to  use  a 
caique  like  that  of  her  son ;  she  is  above  the  law,  and 
can  do  any  thing  she  likes.  If  she  likes  to  do  good,  she 
can  do  much  good ;  if  she  likes  to  do  evil,  she  can  do 
much  evil.  Between  those  who  were  jealous  of  the 
power  and  who  hated  the  strong  government  of  Mirza 
Tekee,  a  powerful  party  was  created,  who  got  hold  of 
the  weak  mind  of  the  young  Shah,  who  owed  every 
thing  in  this  world  to  his  minister ;  his  destruction 
was  agreed  upon,  and  he  was  given  leave  to  go  to 
Koom,  where  he  had  an  estate.  So  secretly  were  af- 
fairs managed  that  his  suspicions  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  aroused ;  his  young  wife  followed  him,  with  all 
her  train,  looking  forward  to  the  pleasure  of  living  with 
her  husband  for  a  while  in  the  quiet  and  retirement  of 
a  beautiful  country ;  but  when  she  arrived  within 
sight  of  the  town  of  Koom,  a  messenger  came  out  to 
meet  her,  and  the  news  that  he  brought  was  that  Mir- 


63  ARMENIA. 


za  Tekee  had  been  killed  "by  the  order  of  her  brother 
the  Shah,  whose  emissaries  had  seized  him  unexpect- 
edly in  the  bath.  He  made  a.  desperate  resistance, 
but  he  was  overpowered ;  they  opened  his  veins  and 
held  him  down  till  the  Grand  Vizir  had  bled  to  death. 
No  crime  whatever  was  alleged  against  him  :  he  was 
murdered  foully  by  the  Shah,  who  thus  destroyed  one 
of  his  best  and  most  honest  subjects  at  the  instigation 
of  some  of  the  most  infamous  and  worst.  This  hap- 
pened in  the  year  1851. 

There  is  nothing,  however,  very  unusual  in  this  ter- 
mination of  the  life  and  fortunes  of  the  prime  minister 
of  Persia,  only  it  is  usually  done  under  more  extenu- 
ating circumstances.  The  singular  ideas  which  they 
entertain  of  the  principles  of  government  are  summed 
up  in  the  notion  that  it  is  better  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
one  furious  ogre  than  at  the  mercy  of  a  hundred  ty- 
rants. For  this  reason  the  tribes  of  the  Kuzzulbash 
admire  a  truculent  Shah,  such  as  Aga  Mohammed 
Shah,  and  they  like  a  Grand  Vizir  who  lets  nobody  rob 
and  plunder  except  himself.  When  he  is  fat  and  fit 
for  killing,  the  blood-drinker  on  the  throne  cuts  off  his 
head,  or  strangles  him,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  then 
takes  possession  of  his  property,  throwing  a  sop  to  the 
mob  occasionally  by  allowing  them  to  sack  the  great 
man's  house.  I  do  not  use  the  above-mentioned  epi- 
thet as  a  term  of  reprehension  or  abuse,  for  Hunkiar  is 
one  of  the  recognized  titles  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey 
and  of  other  Eastern  sovereigns.  The  treaty  of  Hun- 
kiar Skellessi,  which  made  so  great  a  sensation  in  its 
day,  was  so  called  from  the  name  of  a  place  on  the 
Asiatic  shores  of  the  Bosporus.     The   name   means 


^ 


K  E  R  B  E  L  A.  (59 


the  "  BloocUdrinWr^s  Stairs" — an  appellation  at  this 
time  equally  suited  to  either  of  the  "  high  contracting 
powers." 

The  plenipotentiaries  and  commissioners  being  as- 
sembled, every  thing  was  in  the  greatest  danger  of 
falling  to  pieces  on  the  outset,  by  the  very  first  dis- 
patches which  we  received,  as  these  related  to  a  fright- 
ful massacre  which  had  just  taken  place  at  Kerbela, 
where  22,000  Persians  were  reported  to  have  been 
killed  by  the  Turks.  Kerbela,  in  the  pashalik  of  Bag- 
dad, is  a  Turkish  fortified  place,  containing  the  tomb 
of  Hossein,  the  brother  of  Hassan,  and  son  of  Ali,  the 
great  saint  of  the  Shiah,  or  Persian  form  of  the  Moham- 
medan religion.  Not  only  do  an  immense  number  of 
Persians  habitually  reside  there,  but  every  one  who  has 
the  power  strives  to  retire  there  in  his  latter  days,  that 
he  may  lay  his  bones  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  gold- 
en dome  which  covers  the  ashes  of  Hossein.  Those 
who  die  at  a  distance  are  so  anxious  at  least  to  be 
buried  at  Kerbela,  that  the  great  article  of  commerce 
in  that  direction  consists  of  the  dead  bodies  of  Persian 
men  and  women,  which  are  brought  by  thousands  ev- 
ery year,  from  all  parts  of  the  dominions  of  the  Shah, 
by  endless  caravans  of  horses,  mules,  and  camels,  many 
hundreds  of  which^  unlucky  animals  pass  their  whole 
lives  from  year  to  year  in  carrying  these  horrid  bur- 
dens, which  infect  the  air  in  all  the  villages  through 
which  they  pass. 

So  great  is  the  sanctity  of  Kerbela,  that,  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  sect  of  Ali,  it  even  may  be  said  to  sur- 
jDass  that  of  Mecca,  for  they,  among  Mohammedans, 
are  tHose  who^"by  their  traditions  have  made  the  law 


70  ARMENIA. 


of  none  effect."  The  history  of  the  death  of  Hossein 
is  so  interesting  an  episode  in  the  history  of  this  coun- 
try, that  I  am  tempted  to  give  a  short  account  of  it, 
for  the  "benefit  of  those  who  may  not  be  well  acquaint- 
ed with  the  history  of  the  successors  of  Mohammed, 
and  upon  whose  fortunes  so  much  of  the  welfare  and 
also  the  policy  of  the  various  nations  of  the  East,  from 
the  seventh  century  to  the  present  time,  depends — pre- 
mising that  the  principal  cause  of  the  rancorous  hatred 
which  always  has  existed,  and  still  exists  in  full  force, 
between  the  Sooni  Turks  ancf  the  Shiah  Persians,  is 
principally  founded  upon  events  connected  with  the 
death  of  the  Imaum  Hossein,  and  the  feeling  is  kept  up 
in  full  vigor  in  Persia  by  a  sort  of  drama,  representing 
the  following  history,  which  is  enacted  before  the  Shah, 
and  in  every  town  in  Persia,  every  year,  at  the  annual 
feast  of  Nop  Rooz,  which  continues  for  ten  days.  In 
one  of  the  acts  of  this  most  curious  ceremony,  a  Frank 
embassador  is  brought  before  the  audience,  who  inter- 
cedes for  the  life  of  Hossein  and  his  followers  with  the 
general  of  the  army  of  Yezid.  Who  he  can  have  been 
there  is  no  means  of  knowing,  but  he  may  possibly 
represent  an  embassador  from  the  Greek  Emperor  of 
Constantinople,  who  may  have  been  passing  on  his 
way  to  the  court  of  the  Caliph.  However  this  may 
be,  his  presence  produces  a  kindly  feeling  toward  Eu- 
ropeans in  the  minds  of  the  Persian  populace. 

On  the  death  of  Ali  (A.D.  661),  his  eldest  son,  Has- 
san, was  proclaimed  Caliph  and  Imaumjin  Irak ;  the 
former  title  he  was  forced  to  resign  to  Moawiyah ;  the 
latter,  or  spiritual  dignity,  his  followers  regarded  as  in- 
alienable.    His  rival  granted  him  a  pension,  and  per- 


HISTORY    OF    HOSSEIN.  y\ 

mitted  him  to  retire  into  private  life.  After  nine  years, 
passed  for  the  most  part  in  devotional  exercise,  he  was 
poisoned  by  his  wife  Jaadah,  who  was  bribed  to  per- 
petrate this  execrable  crime  by  Yezid,  the  son  of  Moa- 
wiyah. 

On  the  death  of  Moawiyah  (A.D.  679),  his  son  Yezid, 
who  succeeded,  having  provoked  public  indignation  by 
his  luxury,  debauchery,  and  impiety,  Hossein  was  per- 
suaded by  the  discontented  people  of  Irak  to  make  an 
attempt  for  the  recovery  of  his  hereditary  rights.  The 
inhabitants  of  Cufa  and  Bassorah  were  foremost  in 
their  professions  of  zeal  for  the  house  of  Ali,  and  sent 
Hossein  a  list  of  more  than  124,000  persons,  who,  they 
said,  were  ready  to  take  up  arms  in  his  cause. 

Hossein  did  not  take  warning  from  the  inconstancy 
and  treachery  which  these  very  persons  had  shown  in 
their  conduct  toward  his  father  and  brother.  Assem- 
bling a  small  troop  of  his  personal  friends,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  part  of  his  family,  he  departed  from  Medi- 
na, the  place  of  his  residence,  and  was  soon  engaged  in 
crossing  the  desert.  But  while  he  was  on  his  journey, 
Yezid's  governor  in  Irak  discovered  the  meditated  re- 
volt, capitally  punished  the  leaders  of  the  conspiracy, 
and  so  terrified  the  rest  that  they  were  afraid  to  move. 
When  Hossein  arrived  near  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates, 
instead  of  finding  an  army  of  his  devoted  adherents,  he 
discovered  that  his  further  progress  was  checked  by  the 
overwhelming  forces  of  the  enemy.  Determined,  how- 
ever, to  persevere,  he  gave  permission  to  all  who  pleased 
to  retreat  while  there  was  yet  time  ;  to  their  disgrace, 
many  of  his  followers  left  him  to  his  fate,  and  he  con- 
tinued his  route  to  Cufa,  accompanied  only  by  seventy- 


72 


ARMENI  A. 


two  persons.  But  every  step  increased  his  difficulties, 
and  he  attempted  to  return  when  it  was  too  late.  At 
length  he  was  surrounded  by  the  troops  of  the  Caliph 
in  the  arid  plains  of  Kerbela,  his  followers  were  cut  off 
from  their  supply  of  water,  and,  when  he  offered  to  ne- 
gotiate, he  was  told  that  no  terms  would  be  made,  but 
that  he  should  surrender  at  discretion.  Twenty-four 
hours  were  granted  him  for  deliberation. 

Hossein's  choice  was  soon  made :  he  deemed  death 
preferable  to  submission,  but  he  counseled  his  friends 
to  provide  for  their  safety  either  by  surrender  or  escape. 
All  replied  that  they  preferred  dying  with  their  beloved 
leader.  The  only  matter  now  to  be  considered  was 
\  how  they  could  sell  their  lives  most  dearly  ;  they  forti- 
\fied  their  little  encampment  with  a  trench,  and  then 
tranquilly  awaited  the  event. 

That  night  Hossein  slept  soundly,  using  for  a  pillow 
the  pommel  of  his  sword.  During  his  sleep  he  dream- 
ed that  Mohammed  appeared  to  him,  and  predicted  that 
they  should  meet  the  next  day  in  Paradise.  When 
morning  dawned  he  related  his  dream  to  his  sister 
Zeinab,  who  had  accompanied  him  on  his  fatal  expedi- 
tion. She  burst  into  a  passion  of  tears,  and  exclaimed, 
"  Alas  !  alas  !  my  brother  !  What  a  destiny  is  ours ! 
My  father  is  dead !  my  mother  is  dead !  my  brother 
Hassan  is  dead  !  and  the  measure  of  our  calamities  is 
not  yet  full !" 

Hossein  tried  to  console  her.  "  Why  should  you 
weep?"  he  said;  "did  we  not  come  on  earth  to  die? 
My  father  was  more  worthy  than  I ;  my  mother  was 
more  worthy  than  I;  my  brother  was  more  worthy 
than  I.     They  are  all  dead.;  why  should  not  we  be 


HISTORY   OF   HOSSEIN.  73 

ready  to  follow  their  example  ?"  He  then  strictly  en- 
joined his  family  to  make  no  lamentation  for  his  ap- 
proaching martyrdom,  telling  them  that  a  patient  sub- 
mission to  the  divine  decrees  was  the  conduct  most 
pleasing  to  Grod  and  his  Prophet. 

When  morning  appeared,  Hossein,  having  washed 
and  perfumed  himself,  as  if  preparing  for  a  banquet, 
mounted  his  steed,  and  addressed  his  followers  in  terms 
of  endearing  affection  that  drew  tears  from  the  eyes  of 
the  gallant  warriors.  Then,  opening  the  Koran,  he 
read  the  following  verse :  "0  Grod,  be  thou  my  refuge 
in  suffering,  and  my  hope  in  affliction."  But  the  sol- 
diers of  Yezid  were  reluctant  to  assail  the  favorite  grand- 
son of  the  Prophet ;  they  demanded  of  their  generals  to 
allow  him  to  draw  water  from  the  Euphrates,  a  per- 
mission which  would  not  have  been  refused  to  beasts 
and  infidels.  "  Let  us  be  cautious,"  they  exclaimed, 
"  of  raising  our  hands  against  him  who  was  carried  in 
the  arms  of  Grod's  apostle.  It  would  be,  in  fact,  to  fight 
against  himself."  So  strong  were  their  feelings,  that 
thirty  cavaliers  deserted  to  Hossein,  resolved  to  share 
with  him  the  glories  of  martyrdom. 

But  Yezid's  generals  shared  not  in  these  sentiments. 
They  affected  to  regard  Hossein  as  an  enemy  of  Islam. 
They  forced  their  soldiers  forward  with  blows,  and  ex- 
claimed, "  War  to  those  who  abandon  the  true  religion, 
and  separate  themselves  from  the  council  of  the  faith- 
ful !"  Hossein  replied,  u  It  is  you  who  have  abandon- 
ed the  true  religion ;  it  is  you  who  have  severed  your- 
selves from  the  assembly  of  the  faithful.  Ah  !  when 
your  souls  shall  be  separated  from  your  bodies,  you 
will  learn  too  late  which  party  has  incurred  the  penalty 

D 


74  ARMENIA. 


of  eternal  condemnation."  Notwithstanding  their  vast 
superiority,  the  Caliph's  forces  hesitated  to  engage  men 
determined  on  death ;  they  poured  in  their  arrows  from 
a  distance,  and  soon  dismounted  the  little  troop  of  Hos- 
sein's  cavalry. 

"When  the  hour  of  noon  arrived,  Hossein  solicited  a 
suspension  of  arms  during  the  time  appointed  for  the 
meridian  prayers.  This  boon  was  conceded  with  dif- 
ficulty, the  generals  of  Yezid  asking  "  how  a  wretch 
like  him  could  venture  to  address  the  Deity;"  and 
adding  the  vilest  reproaches,  to  which  Hossein  made 
no  reply.  The  Persian  traditions  relate  a  fabulous 
circumstance,  designed  to  exalt  the  character  of  Hos- 
sein, though  fiction  itself  can  not  increase  the  deep 
interest  of  his  history.  They  tell  us  that  while  he 
was  upon  his  knees,  the  King  of  the  Genii  appeared  to 
him,  and  offered,  for  the  sake  of  his  father  Ali,  to  dis- 
perse his  enemies  in  a  moment.  "  No,"  replied  the 
generous  Hossein,  "  what  use  is  there  in  fighting  any 
longer  ?  I  am  but  a  guest  of  one  breath  in  this  trans- 
itory world ;  my  relatives  and  companions  are  all 
gone,  and  what  will  it  profit  me  to  remain  behind  ?  I 
long  for  nothing  now  save  my  martyrdom  ;  therefore 
depart  thou,  and  may  the  Lord  recompense  and  bless 
thee !"  The  genius  was  so  deeply  affected  by  the  re- 
ply that  his  soul  exhibited  human  weakness,  and  he 
departed  weeping  and  lamenting. 

When  the  hour  of  prayer  was  past,  the  combat  was 
renewed.  One  of  Hossein's  sons,  and  several  of  his 
nephews,  lay  dead  around  him ;  tjie  rest  of  his  follow- 
ers were  either  killed  or  grievously  wounded.  Hith- 
erto he  had  escaped  unhurt,  for  every  one  dreaded  to 


MURDER   OF   HOSSEIN.  75 

raise  a  hand  against  the  grandson  of  Mohammed ;  at 
length  a  soldier,  more  daring  than  the  rest,  gave  him 
a  severe  wound  in  the  head.  Faint  with  the  loss  of 
blood,  he  staggered  to  the  door  of  his  tent,  and  with  a 
burst  of  parental  affection,  which  at  such  a  moment 
must  have  been  mingled  with  unspeakable  bitterness, 
took  up  his  infant  son,  and  began  to  caress  him. 
While  the  little  child  was  lisping  out  an  inquiry  as  to 
the  cause  of  his  father's  emotion,  it  was  struck  dead 
by  an  arrow  in  Hossein's  arms.  When  the  blood  of 
the  innocent,  bubbling  over  his  bosom,  disclosed  this 
new  calamity,  Hossein  held  up  the  body  toward  heav- 
en, exclaiming,  "  0  Lord !  if  thou  refusest  us  thy  suc- 
cor, at  least  spare  those  who  have  not  yet  sinned,  and 
turn  thy  wrath  upon  the  heads  of  the  guilty."  Parch- 
ed by  a  burning  thirst,  Hossein  made  a  desperate  ef- 
fort to  reach  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  but,  when  he 
stooped  to  drink,  he  was  struck  by  an  arrow  in  the 
mouth,  and  at  the  same  moment  one  of  his  nephews, 
who  came  to  embrace  him  for  the  last  time,  had  his 
hand  cut  off  by  the  blow  of  a  sabre.  Hossein,  now 
the  sole  survivor  of  his  party,  threw  himself  into  the 
midst  of  the  enemy,  and  fell  beneath  a  thousand  weap- 
ons. The  officers  of  Yezid  barbarously  mangled  the 
corpse  of  the  unfortunate  prince ;  they  cut  off  his  head, 
and  sent  it  to  the  Caliph. 

The  escort  who  guarded  it  on  its  way  to  the  court 
of  Yezid,  halting  for  the  night  in  the  city  of  Mosul, 
placed  the  box  which  contained  it  in  a  mosque;  one 
of  the  sentinels,  in  the  middle  of  the  night  hearing  a 
noise  within,  looked  through  a  chink  in  the  door,  and 
saw  a  gigantic  figure,  with  a  venerable  white  beard, 


76  ARMENIA. 


take  the  head  of  Hossein  out  of  its  box,  kiss  it  with 
reverence,  and  weep  over  it,  a  crowd  of  venerable  per- 
sonages following  his  example,  and  weeping  bitterly  at 
the  same  time.  Fearing  that  some  of  his  partisans 
had  gained  admittance,  and  that  they  would  carry 
away  the  head  which  he  was  guarding,  he  unlocked 
the  door  and  entered  the  mosque,  upon  which  one  of 
the  figures  he  had  seen  approached,  and,  giving  him 
a  blow  upon  the  cheek,  exclaimed,  "  The  prophets 
have  come  to  pay  obeisance  to  the  head  of  the  mar- 
tyr :  whither  dost  thou  venture  with  such  disrespect  ?" 
In  the  morning  he  related  what  had  happened  to  his 
commander,  the  impression  of  the  hand  and  fingers  of 
the  ancient  prophet  being  still  visible  on  his  cheek. 

The  heed  of  Hossein,  and  that  of  his  brother  Has- 
san, repose  under  a  mosque  of  the  highest  sanctity  at 
Cairo :  it  is  called  the  mosque  of  Hassanen.  Another 
mosque  in  the  same  city  covers  with  its  dome  the  re- 
mains of  Sitte,  or  the  lady  Zeinab,  their  sister,  who 
was  famous  for  her  beauty :  her  shrine  is  now  visited 
with  great  devotion  by  the  ladies  and  women  of  her 
faith.  The  headless  body  of  Hossein  was  buried  upon 
the  spot  where  he  fell,  while  above  it  afterward  arose 
the  present  place  of  pilgrimage,  so  much  resorted  to  by 
the  Shiah  sect. 

The  Persian  fanatics  of  Kerbela  had  long  declined 
paying  the  accustomed  taxes  to  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment. Their  insolent  behavior  had  been  a  constant 
source  of  anger  and  difficulty  to  successive  Pashas  of 
Bagdad.  At  last  the  present  Pasha  was  determined 
to  enforce  the  law :  after  sending  various  letters  to  the 
town  requesting  payment  of  taxes  and  arrears,  which 


ATTACK    ON    KERBELA.  77 

were  treated  with  ridicule  and  contempt,  he  gave  or- 
ders to  a  general  called  Aboullabout  Pasha,  who  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  Sooni  of  the  most  orthodox  kind, 
to  march  an  army  of  several  thousand  men  to  compel 
the  people  of  Kerbela  to  acknowledge  the  rule  of  the 
Sultan.  Aboullabout  Pasha  arrived  accordingly,  and 
pitched  his  camp  in  a  grove  of  palms  not  far  from  the 
walls  of  the  city.  He  brought  four  guns  with  him, 
and  a  number  of  topgis,  or  gunners,  to  work  these  in- 
struments of  destruction,  if  the  Persians  in  the  town 
did  not  choose  to  obey  his  commands.  These  imperti- 
nent fanatics  treated  the  Turkish  Pasha  and  his  army 
with  derision ;  rode  out  in  the  cool  of  the  evening  to 
look  at  the  encampment,  called  the  Turks  grandsons 
and  great  grandsons  of  dogs,  whom  they  would  soon 
pack  off  to  their  kennels  at  Bagdad  and  Constanti- 
nople. 

It  seems  that,  trusting  in  the  sanctity  of  the  golden 
dome,  they  did  not  imagine  that  the  Turks  would  dare 
to  advance  to  extremities,  particularly  as  several  royal 
princesses  and  members  of  the  family  of  the  Shah  had 
taken  up  their  abode  in  the  vicinity  of  the  tomb  of  the 
Imaum.  However,  the  four  guns  and  the  topgis  ad- 
vanced to  a  position  near  the  walls,  and  the  Pasha  sent 
a  civil  note  to  the  insurgents  within,  to  say  that  he 
would  trouble  them  to  pay  his  little  bill ;  at  the  very 
notion  of  which  the  Persians  were  seized  with  fits  of 
laughter,  they  were  so  much  amused  at  the  idea  of 
paying  away  their  money  to  the  Turks,  xlfter  several 
demands  for  their  surrender,  the  town  was  blockaded, 
and  the  Persians  made  various  sallies  on  the  Turk- 
ish lines,  in  which  they  were  always  repulsed,  and,  all 


78  ARMENIA. 


warnings  being  disregarded,  the  four  guns  at  last  pro- 
ceeded to  business.  The  walls  tumbled  down  imme- 
diately, the  Turks  walked  in,  the  Persians  ran  away, 
making  very  little  effectual  resistance,  and  fire  and  the 
sword,  plunder  and  outrage  of  all  kinds,  took  place  in 
every  quarter  of  the  devoted  city.  "When  the  Turkish 
troops  entered  the  town,  Aboullabout  Pasha,  who  took 
it  all  in  a  religious  point  of  view,  had  his  carpet  spread 
upon  a  bastion  close  above  the  breach,  and  having 
cursed  Hassan  and  Hossein,  Sitti  Zeinab  and  Ali,  of- 
fered ten  shillings  a  piece  for  the  heads  of  any  of  their 
followers ;  and  then  went  quietly  to  prayers  for  the  rest 
of  the  morning,  without  making  any  effort  to  stop  the 
horrors  and  excesses  which  occur  when  a  city  has  been 
taken  by  storm.  The  accounts  of  the  shocking  out- 
rages and  barbarities  committed  by  the  brutal  soldiery 
are  not  fit  to  be  repeated.  When  the  town. was  pil- 
laged, and  every  thing  had  been  seized  that  they  could 
lay  their  hands  upon,  those  who  had  not  been  fortunate 
in  lighting  upon  any  treasure,  or  any  thing  worth  tak- 
ing away,  bethought  themselves  of  the  manner  in 
which  profit  and  amusement  might  be  combined,  by 
cutting  off  every  one's  head  that  they  could  meet  with, 
and  taking  it  up  to  the  pious  old  Pasha,  who  continued 
praying  on  his  carpet  on  the  bastion.  When  Persian 
heads  became  difficult  to  find,  not  being  particular,  a 
great  many  Turks  were  shot  and  decapitated  by  their 
fellow-soldiers,  for  the  sake  of  their  heads,  the  frater- 
nal feeling  of  nationality  and  Sooniism  not  being  cal- 
culated to  resist  the  offer  of  one  ducat  per  head.  If 
this  had  been  suffered  to  continue,  it  is  probable  that 
the  state  of  affairs  would  have  resembled  that  of  the 


REPORT  OF  COLONEL  FARRANT.     79 

celebrated  battle  between  the  two  Kilkenny  cats,  who  \ 
ate  each  other  up  entirely  with  the  exception  of  a 
small  piece  of  fluff.  When  the  massacre  was  stopped, 
22,000  persons  were  reported  to  have  been  slain.  This 
was  very  much  exaggerated,  no  doubt,  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  a  very  correct  account  could  be  made  out. 
A  most  curious  and  interesting  report  was  afterward 
drawn  up  on  this  subject  by  Colonel  Farrant,  who  was 
deputed  by  the  British  government  to  proceed  to  Ker- 
bela  for  the  purpose  of  pacifying  the  contending  par- 
ties, and  inquiring  into  the  truth  and  extent  of  this  ter- 
rible disaster. 

This  was  the  first  subject  which  the  congress  assem- 
bled to  discuss  measures  of  amity  and  mutual  confi- 
dence between  Turkey  and  Persia  had  brought  before 
them — one  not  precisely  calculated  to  insure  that  calm- 
ness of  debate  and  general  good- will  which  all  wanted 
to  establish. 

In  course  of  time  matters  calmed  down;  things 
were  what  is  called  explained.  We  were  all  wonder- 
fully civil  to  each  other,  and  the  Turkish  and  Persian 
followers  of  their  respective  plenipotentiaries  did  not 
express  their  private  opinions  of  each  other's  merits 
till  they  got  home  and  shut  the  door. 

Gradually  they  became  more  used  to  one  another's 
ways,  and  the  commissioners  worked  like  special  con- 
stables to  keep  the  peace — and  very  hard  work  they 
had ;  and  it  is  wholly  and  entirely  owing  to  their  exer- 
tions that  the  Koordish  tribes  upon  the  frontiers,  and 
the  wild  spirits  on  both  sides  who  were  ready  to  back 
them  up,  were  kept  down  for  more  than  ten  years, 
during  which  time  commerce  has  been  enlarged,  the 


QO  ARMENIA. 


roads  have  been  safe,  and  the  Christian  and  agricul- 
tural population  from  Bussora  to  Mount  Ararat  have 
enjoyed  a  tranquillity  and  prosperity  unknown  in  the 
memory  of  man. 


KOORDISH    CHIEFTAINS.  gj 


CHAPTER  Y. 

The  Boundary  Question. — Koordish  Chiefs. — Torture  of  Artin,  an 
American  Christian. — Improved  State  of  Society  in  Turkey.— -Ex- 
ecution of  a  Koord.  —  Power  of  Fatalism.  —  Gratitude  of  Artin's 
Family. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  affairs  which  were 
to  be  settled  at  Erzeroom  was  the  geographical  posi- 
tion of  the  boundaries  between  the  two  empires,  for 
along  the  whole  line  there  ran  a  broad  belt  of  a  kind 
of  debatable  land,  upon  which  every  man  felt  it  his 
duty  to  shoot  at  every  other  man  whom  he  did  not  get 
near  enough  to  run  through  with  his  long  spear,  or 
knock  upon  the  head  with  his  mace,  these  ancient 
style  of  weapons  being  still  in  use  among  the  Koords. 
For  the  purpose  of  gaining  local  information,  many  of 
the  chiefs  and  principal  persons  of  the  wild  districts  in 
question  were  brought  up  to  Erzeroom  to  be  exam- 
ined before  the  plenipotentiaries  and  commissioners. 
Some  of  these  were  most  original  individuals.  The 
following  extract  from  a  letter,  written  upon  the  spot, 
will  give  a  faint  idea  of  two  or  three  of  these  singular 
chieftains. 

Extract  of  a  Letter. 

"Erzeroom,  August  11th,  1843. 
"  One  day  passes  much  like  another  at  Erzeroom, 
and  though  there  seldom  occurs  any  thing  new  to  me, 
perhaps,  as  it  would  be  all  new  to  you,  you  may  like 
D2 


g2  A  It  M  E  N  1  A. 


to  hear  how  I  pass  my  time,  so  I  will  give  you  a  sort  of 
journal  of  the  proceedings  of  yesterday,  that  you  may 
see  how  I  occupy  myself  in  this  outlandish  place. 
First  of  all,  I  got  up  in  the  morning,  ate  my  breakfast, 
and  then  walked  about  the  ierxace. -en  the  topj°Line 
Jiouse.  At  eleven  o'clock  a  messenger  came  from  En- 
veriErtendi,  to  ask  us  to  go  to  his  house  at  one.  So 
at  one  o'clock  we  went;  the  Russian  commissioner, 
with  his  suite,  came  also.  At  the  door  of  Enveri  Ef- 
fendi's  house  I  saw  a  fine  mare,  with  very  peculiar 
housings.  It  was  held  by  a  negro,  and  a  Bedouin 
Arab  was  sitting  on  the  ground  near  it.  The  head- 
stall was  made  of  a  red  silk  garter,  which  went  over 
its  head,  and  was  attached  to  the  bit  by  a  piece  of 
green  leather  strap ;  the  saddle  was  a  common  Arab 
saddle,  but  the  housings,  made  of  wadded  red  silk, 
ended  in  two  immense  tassels,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
horse's  tail,  and  almost  as  large;  the  shovel-stirrups 
were  beautifully  embossed  and  inlaid  with  silver,  and 
there  was  a  heavy  mace  of  the  same  workmanship 
under  the  right  flap  of  the  saddle.  This  curious  horse 
belonged  to  Sheikh  Thamir,  the  chief  of  the  Chaab 
tribe,  and  ex-sovereign  of  all  the  land  at  the  mouths  of 
the  Euphrates.  All  the  time  that  I  was  examining 
the  horse  and  talking  about  its  accouterments,  the 
Turkish  guard  were  presenting  arms,  and  they  looked 
very  much  relieved  when  I  turned  round  and  went 
into  the  house. 

"  The  staircase  of  this  palace  is  like  a  chicken-lad- 
der, and  the  hall  at  the  top,  where  the  servants  wait, 
like  a  little  barn  or  stable  in  England.  Here,  as  I  was 
kicking  off  my  goloshes,  I  was  seized  by  Enveri  EfTendi 


KOOR  DISH    CHIEFTAINS.  §3 

himself,  who  had  come  up  behind  me.  This  was  con- 
sidered as  an  excellent  good  joke  by  the  Chaoushes, 
servants,  &c,  who  stood  in  a  row  to  receive  us ;  so  we 
went  into  the  selamlik  (or  reception  room)  together, 
and  there  I  was  introduced  to  three  of  the  most  pic- 
turesque people  I  have  ever  seen.  The  first  was 
Osman  Pasha,  late  Governor  of  Zohab;  the  second, 
Sheikh  Thamir,  whose  horse  I  had  been  looking  at  out- 
side ;  the  third  was  yclept  Abdul  Kader  Effendi,  chief 
secretary  to  the  government  of  Bussorah.  These  per- 
sons were  dressed  in  flowing  robes  of  various  colors ; 
they  had  long  beards,  and  enormous  turbans  of  Cash- 
mere shawl.  All  three  were  remarkably  ugly,  strange- 
looking  men,  and  I  can  not  describe  to  you  the  pecu- 
liar way  in  which  their  clothes  were  put  on,  and  the 
wild  and  almost  magnificent  appearance  they  present- 
ed.    There  were,  besides  these  and  ourselves,  B 

Pasha  and  four  other  gentlemen,  in  the  modern  Turk- 
ish dress.  The  three  commissioners  and  their  two 
dragomans  sat  on  the  divan  under  the  window,  all,  ex- 
cept myself,  with  their  legs  sticking  out,  like  people 
waiting  for  an  operation  in  a  hospital.  Enveri  Effendi 
sat  on  a  cushion  on  the  floor,  in  the  right-hand  corner, 
and  the  others  were  ranged  on  the  two  sides  of  the 
room.  As  we  were  fourteen  people,  on  a  sudden  four- 
teen servants  rushed  into  the  room  with  pipes;  then 
one  brought  coffee  on  a  tray,  the  brocade  covering  of 
which  was  thrown  over  his  left  shoulder;  and  then 
came  a  man  bringing  to  each  of  us  a  cup,  well  frothed 
up,  and  in  a  zarf,  or  outer  cup,  of  a  different  kind,  ac- 
cording to  the  rank  of  the  person  to  whom  it  was  pre- 
sented.    Enveri  Effendi  and  the  three  commissioners 


84  ARMENIA. 


had  cups  of  enameled  gold,  the  rest  of  the  Pashas,  &c, 
of  silver.  "When  this  ceremony  was  concluded,  the 
doorWas shut,  the  servants  disappeared,  a  curtain  was 
drawn  across  the  door,  and  two  chaoushes,  with  mus- 
kets, put  to  guard  it  outside.  Then  Enveri  Effendi 
lifted  up  his  voice,  and,  after  swinging  himself  about, 
and  grunting  two  or  three  times,  he  told  us  that  the 
gentlemen  in  the  turbans  had  brought  up  a  number 
of  old  firmans,  teskeres,  and  other  papers  relating  to 
the  lands  between  Zohab  and  the  Persian  Gulf;  that 
he  had  examined  them,  and  that  now  he  begged  the 
commissioners  to  put  any  questions  they  chose  to  the 
worthies  before  them  respecting  the  lands,  &c. 

"  Then  we  all  looked  at  each  other  for  a  little  time, 
then  they  all  looked  at  me.  Then  I  took  up  my  para- 
ble, and  desired  the  dragoman  to  ask  Osman  Pasha 
who  he  was.  'I  am  Osman  Pasha,'  said  he;  'and 
I  and  my  family  have  been  sovereigns  (or  hereditary 
governors  rather)  of  Zohab  for  seven  generations.' 
Having  asked  him  a  great  many  questions,  and  writ- 
ten down  his  answers,  which  made  him  somewhat 
nervous,  I  turned  to  Sheikh  Thamir.  '  What  is  your 
fortunate  name  ?'  said  I ;  upon  which  Sheikh  Thamir 
opened  his  eyes,  then  he  opened  his  mouth,  then  he 
looked  at  Abdel  Kader,  then  he  shut  his  mouth  again, 
and  said  nothing.  So  I  asked  him  again  who  he  had 
the  honor  to  be.  Upon  this,  Abdel  Kader,  who  ap- 
peared to  be  his  mentor  or  adviser,  came  and  sat  down 
by  him,  and  said,  'He  is  Sheikh  Thamir.'  Sheikh 
Thamir  upon  this  shouted  out,  at  the  top  of  his 
voice, '  Yes,  I  am  Sheikh  Thamir,  the  son  of  Grashban, 
who  was  the  son  of  Osman,  who  was  the  son  of — ' 


KOORDISH    CHIEFTAINS.  Q5 

t  Thank  you,'  I  said,  '  I  only  wanted  to  know  from  your 
own  lips  who  you  were,  but  am  not  particular  as  to 
the  names  of  all  your  respected  ancestors.'  However, 
Sheikh  Thamir  was  not  to  be  stopped  in  this  way 
when  he  had  once  begun,  so  he  shouted  out  a  long 
string  of  names,  and  when  he  got  to  the  end  he  said 
he  was  Sheikh  of  the  Sheikhs  of  the  great  tribe  of 
Chaab,  and  commander  of  the  district  of  Grhoban, 
which  his  ancestors  had  held  before  him  for  one  or  two 
hundred  years — or  more,  or  less,  as  I  pleased.  In  an- 
swer to  other  questions,  which  Abdel  Kader  always  ac- 
companied with  his  own  notes  and  commentaries,  he 
said,  'I  have  no  papers;  we  do  not  understand  such 
things.  What  do  I  know  ?  I  am  an  old  man.  I  am 
forty-five  years  of  age ;  let  me  alone.'  In  course  of 
time  I  did  let  him  alone,  and  a  difficult  thing  it  was  to 
draw  out  any  information  from  this  wild  4gsert  chief. 
Every  now  and  then  somebody  else  put  in  a  word.  At 
about  four  o'clock  the  meeting  broke  up.  We  return- 
ed home  and  dined,  and  in  the  evening  went  out  rid- 
ing. Passing  some  tents,  which  the  Pasha  has  set  up 
at  the  other  side  of  the  town,  near  a  tank — the  only 
place  where  there  are  any  trees  near  Erzeroom,  and 
they  are  only  about  a  dozen  poplars — I  saw  a  number 
of  people,  so  I  went  up  to  the  tents,  and  found  Sabri 
Pasha,  the  commander  of  the  troops,  an  Egyptian 
Pasha,  who  is  come  to  buy  horses  for  Mohammed  Ali 
— he  has  bought  some  hundreds;  Bekir  Pasha,  some 
other  military  Pashas,  Namik  Effendi,  &c,  two  little 
sons  of  Sabri  Pasha,  dressed  in  a  very  odd  way,  with 
petticoats  of  different  colored  silks  in  stripes ;  he  said 
it  was  the  dress  of  the  girls  in  Albania,  but  I  never 


86  ARMENIA. 


saw  any  thing  like  it  in  that  country.  Here  we  stayed 
and  chatted  with  the  Turks.  The  tents  are  superb ; 
the  principal  one  was  100  feet  long,  with  an  open  col- 
onnade round  it,  and  lined  inside  with  silk ;  rich  Per- 
sian carpets  were  spread  on  the  ground.  I  have  never 
seen  so  beautiful  a  tent.  When  the  moon  rose  I  went 
away,  a  man  carrying  a  meshaleh,  a  thing  like  a  bea- 
con, on  the  top  of  a  pole,  with  old  cotton  dipped  in  pitch 
burning  in  it;  it  is  the  best  light  there  is  for  out-of- 
doors,  as  it  never  blows  out,  and  gives  much  more 
light  than  any  torches  or  lanterns. 

"  When  I  got  home  I  paid  my  respects  to  the  kid, 
who  came  out  to  meet  me ;  and  to  the  little  cow,  eight- 
een inches  high,  who  sat  in  the  door  and  would  not  get 
out  of  the  way ;  and  having  drank  tea,  I  went  to  bed." 

On  another  occasion  certain  men  represented  to  me 
that  a  Christian  oda  bashi,  or  chamberlain  of  a  khan 
or  inn,  had  been  unjustly  seized  and  tortured  by  the 
authorities,  to  make  him  confess  to  a  robbery  that  had 
taken  place  in  his  khan,  which  in  reality  had  been  per- 
petrated by  two  Turkish  soldiers;  but  the  oda  bashi 
being  a  Christian,  neither  his  evidence  nor  that  of  any 
other  Christian  could  be  taken  in  opposition  to  that  of 
a  Mohammedan,  according  to  the  Turkish  law.  The 
case  was  brought  before  me,  and  I  took  some  interest 
in  it.  I  had  no  authority  whatever  to  deal  with  such 
questions  as  these,  and  it  was  only  by  representations 
to  the  Pasha  that  I  was  enabled  to  obtain  justice  for 
the  unlucky  oda  bashi. 

Finding  the  case  taken  down  at  the  time  from  the 
word  of  mouth  of  some  of  those  who  moved  in  it,  I 


AFFAIR   OF   ARTIN.  87 

thought  it  might  be  interesting  as  a  picture  of  man- 
ners in  an  out-of-the-way  country,  and  I  subjoin  it 
without  making  any  alterations  in  the  language  of 
this  piece  of-justiciary  business. 

Case  of  Artin,  Oda  Bashi,  an  Armenian. 

"  Erzeroom,  August  2d  and  12th,  1843. 

"A  merchant,  named  Mehemed,  brought  his  mer- 
chandise to  the  Khan  Grhenge  Aga  Khan,  where  he 
slept.  Two  soldiers  slept  near  him.  In  the  morning 
his  goods  were  gone ;  he  accused  the  soldiers  (who 
were  the  only  people  who  had  been  near  him)  of  the 
robbery  ;  they  denied  it,  and  were  let  off  by  the  judge 
at  the  mekemme,  before  whom  they  had  been  taken. 
A  Turkish  woman,  named  Zeilha,  saw  the  two  soldiers 
bury  something,  upon  which  she  told  the  merchant 
that  his  goods  were  buried  at  such  a  place  by  the  sol- 
diers. He  went  there,  and  found  half  the  goods ;  the 
soldiers,  therefore,  were  again  taken  up,  when  they 
confessed  to  the  theft  of  half  the  goods,  but  said  that 
the  oda  bashi,  an  Armenian,  named  Artin,  had  taken 
the  other  half.  Artin  was  accordingly  taken  before 
the  tribunal  of  the  Kiaya ;  the  Pasha  ordered  him  to 
be  tortured  on  his  declaring  himself  ignorant  of  the 
theft.  A  tass  (metal  drinking-cup)  of  hot  brass  was 
put  about  his  head ;  afterward  a  cord  was  tied  round 
his  head,  two  sheep's  knuckle-bones  were  placed  upon 
his  temples,  and  the  cord  tightened  till  his  eyes  nearly 
came  out.  As  he  would  not  confess,  his  front  teeth 
were  then  drawn  one  at  a  time ;  pieces  of  cane  were 
run  up  under  his  toe-nails  and  his  finger-nails.  Vari- 
ous tortures  have  been  inflicted  on  him  in  this  way  for 


ARMENIA. 


the  last  twelve  days,  and  he  is  now  hung  up  "by  the 
hands  in  the  prison  of  the  Seraskier,  where  he  will  he 
kept  and  tormented  till  he  confesses  or  dies.  This  is 
the  deposition  of  his  wife  Mariam,  who  begs  me  to  in- 
terpose to  save  her  husband,  who,  she  declares,  slept  at 
home,  and  not  in  the  khan,  on  the  night  when  the  rob- 
bery took  place." 

]  According  to  the  Turkish  law,  two  witnesses  of  un- 
impeachable character  are  sufficient  to  convict  any 
man  of  any  crime,  on  their  accusing  him  before  the 
cadi.  Only  in  the  case  of  adultery  four  male  witnesses 
are  required.  A  woman's  evidence  is  never  taken,  nor 
is  that  of  a  Christian  or  a  foreigner  held  good  in  any 
case  against  a  Mohammedan.  These  two  soldiers,  how- 
ever, being  convicted  thieves,  their  evidence  was  not 
valid  according  to  the  law,  and  the  oda  bashi  seems  to 
have  been  taken  up  and  tortured  by  an  entirely  arbi- 
trary act  of  the  Pasha.  I  went  to  the  palace,  and 
these  are  the  words  of  Kiamili  Pasha,  the  Governor 
and  Viceroy  of  Erzeroom. 

"  You  are  mistaken ;  the  man  has  not  been  tortured ; 
I  have  proof  that  he  was  at  the  khan  that  night ;  he 
has  been  found  guilty  by  the  court  (mekemme)  on 
proper  evidence,  and  sent  to  me  to  receive  the  punish- 
ment due  to  his  offense.  As  I  wished  to  recover  the 
goods  stolen  for  the  benefit  of  their  owner,  the  mer- 
chant Mehemed,  I  threatened  the  oda  bashi  that  if  he 
did  not  tell  what  he  had  done  with  his  share  of  the 
property,  it  was  in  my  power  to  inflict  these  tortures 
upon  him. 

"  After  this  he  desired  to  be  allowed  to  speak  to  the 


AFFAIR   OF   ARTIN.  89 

two  soldiers  who  had  possession  of  the  other  half  of  the 
goods.  I  consented,  and  sent  him  to  the  prison  at  Se- 
lim  Pasha's  palace,  where  they  were  confined.  As  I 
would  not  trust  to  the  report  of  Selim  Pasha's  people, 
I  sent  a  confidential  man  of  my  own,  who  was  put  in 
a  place  where  he  overheard  all  that  passed.  The  oda 
bashi  said  to  the  soldiers,  '  If  you  will  say  I  am  inno- 
cent, I  will  share  my  portion  of  the  stolen  goods  with 
you,  and  you  will  gain  by  this,  as  your  share  has  been 
taken  from  you,  and  I  shall  get  off  freely.  Do  this,  and 
nobody  will  know.' 

"  The  oda  bashi  was  brought  back  to  his  prison  : 
when  I  asked  him  what  he  had  said  to  the  soldiers,  he 
told  me  quite  another  story.  Then  I  spoke  to  him  in 
his  own  words,  whereat  he  was  astonished,  but  he  kept 
silence.  He  is  still  in  prison,  and  I  am  thinking  what 
to  do  with  him ;  but  he  has  not  been  tortured  in  any 
way ;  and  as  you  seem  to  take  an  interest  in  his  case, 
I  will  set  him  free,  and  give  him  to  you,  to  show  my 
friendship  for  you." 

I  replied,  "  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  the  man  has  not 
been  tortured,  for  in  England  we  consider  torture  to  be 
an  act  of  unnecessary  cruelty ;  but  your  story  alters  the 
case.  The  man  is  certainly  guilty,  and  as  I  only  ask- 
ed for  justice  in  this  case,  and  I  wish  in  all  things  to 
see  justice  done,  I  will  not  have  the  man ;  let  him  be 
punished  according  to  the  law,  only  do  not  torture  him. 

"The  other  day  you  hung  a  Koord  opposite  my 
windows ;  he  was  a  murderer,  and  you  did  right :  it  is 
by  acts  like  these  that  a  country  such  as  this  can  be 
kept  in  order,  and  that  protection  is  assured  to  those 
who  do  well." 


90 


ARMENIA. 


"  I  am  sorry,"  said  the  Pasha,  "  that  they  hung  the 
Koord  before  your  windows.  I  told  them  not  to  hang 
him  before  the  house  of  the  Persian  plenipotentiary, 
where  there  is  a  gibbet ;  but  to  take  him  to  any  place 
where  the  Koords  resorted,  and  as  there  are  many  cof- 
fee-houses near  you,  that  is  the  reason  probably  why 
they  hung  him  there.  His  story  is  a  curious  one  :  I 
have  been  looking  after  him  for  the  last  three  years ; 
he  has  robbed  and  murdered  many  people,  though  he 
was  so  young  a  man,  but  he  had  always  escaped  my 
agents.  At  last,  a  few  days  ago,  he  stole  a  horse,  in  a 
valley  near  here,  from  a  man  who  was  traveling,  and 
whom  he  beat  about  the  head  and  left  for  dead.  He 
brought  the  horse  to  Erzeroom  and  offered  it  for  sale, 
when  the  owner,  who  had  recovered,  saw  him  selling 
the  horse,  and  gave  him  up  to  the  guard.  He  was 
brought  up  for  judgment  before  me,  when  I  said  to 
him,  Who  are  you  ?  After  a  silence,  the  man  said, 
1  There  is  a  fate  in  this,  it  can  not  be  denied.  I  am 
#  *  #  #?  whom  you  have  been  searching  for  these 
three  years.  My  fate  brought  me  to  Erzeroom,  and 
now  I  am  taken  up  for  stealing  one  poor  horse.  I  felt 
when  I  took  that  horse  that  I  was  fated  to  die  for  it. 
My  time  is  come.  It  is  fate.'  And  he  went  to  be 
hung  without  any  complaint." 

I  said  he  deserved  it,  and  hoped  others  would  take 
warning  by  his  death. 

"  I  hope  they  will,"  the  Pasha  said,  "  but  among 
the  Koords  of  this  country  there  are  so  few  who  do 
not  deserve  punishment,  that  if  you  see  two  persons 
you  may  be  sure  that  one  has  stolen  something.  You 
can  not  see  two  people  together  here  but  that  at  least 
one  has  been  a  thief." 


AFFAIR   OF   ARTIN.  91 

"  Well,"  I  answered,  "  the  British  commissioners  are 
two  people  whom  your  excellency  has  often  seen  to- 
gether, but  I  hope,  in  our  case,  when  we  leave  the  pa- 
shalik  of  Erzeroom,  we  may  he  convicted  of  having 
stolen  nothing  hut  your  good  opinion ;"  and  so  I  took 
my  leave. 

In  the  evening,  hearing  that  the  wife  of  the  oda 
bashi  was  in  my  house,  I  said  to  Paolo  Cadelli,  my 
servant,  that  my  desire  to  liberate  the  Armenian  was 
changed :  that  he  had  not  been  tortured,  but  he  was  a 
thief.  "How!"  said  Paolo,  in  a  great  state  of  excite- 
ment ;  "  a  thief  he  may  be,  but  tortured  he  certainly 
was,  for  in  the  morning  did  I  not  go  forth  into  the  ba- 
zaar to  get  wrappers  (pestimal)  of  Persian  silk?  I 
went  to  the  Bezestein,  and  there  did  I  not  see  the 
chief  of  the  criers  of  the  Bit  Bazaar  ?  he  is  my  friend. 
Did  I  not  get  from  him  the  embroidery,  the  cloth  of 
gold  which  you  have,  which  is  in  your  room  ?  And 
we  went,  did  we  not  go  together,  to  the  court  of  the 
palace  of  the  Pasha  ?  It  is  opposite,  is  it  not  opposite 
to  the  entrance  of  the  Bezestein  ?  Do  not  the  soldiers 
present  arms  to  you  there  when  you  go  in?  Yes. 
There  I  went,  and  I  saw  the  Armenian,  a  poor  devil 
— quite  a  poor  devil — sitting  down  like  a  monkey,  al- 
together quite  stupid  with  fear  and  martyrdom.  They 
had  martyred  him ;  they  had  drawn  his  teeth ;  his  fin- 
ger-ends and  toes  were  black,  by  reason  of  the  canes 
they  had  run  into  them ;  his  thighs  had  been  torn  by 
pincers;  he  was  half  dead.  He  said  to  the  people, 
1  What  can  I  do  ?  I  am  innocent ;  kill  me  ;  but  I  can 
not  restore  goods  which  I  have  not  got.'  Ah !  he  is  a 
Christian.     Is  he   not  a   Christian  —  an  Armenian? 


02  ARMENIA. 


That  is  what  these  Turks  do.  They  have  not  tor- 
tured the  soldiers  who  are  guilty.  Certainly  they 
have  not,  but  this  man  has  been  tortured  because  he 
is  an  Armenian.  They  are  Turks,  my  master  (pad- 
rone) ;  are  they  not  Turks  ?  They  are  all  Turks ;  that 
is  what  they  do ;"  and  with  many  ejaculations  Paolo 
went  away  to  cool  down  his  indignation  in  the  open 
air. 

I  was  surprised  at  this  account.  Yesterday,  August 
5,  *  *  *  Pasha  came  to  breakfast,  and  I  begged  him 
to  find  out  the  truth.  In  the  afternoon  I  was  at  En- 
veri  EfFendi's  house;  *  *  *  Pasha  was  there,  and  he 
said  the  man  had  not  been  tortured  ;  that  the  account 
given  me  by  Kiamili  Pasha  was  correct ;  that  the  man 
was  out  of  prison,  but  that  the  Pasha  would  seek  for 
him  and  send  him  to  me. 

I  heard  that,  after  I  went  to  the  Pasha,  the  Pasha 
sent  for  the  Kiaya,  and  finding  the  oda  bashi  had  been 
tortured,  he  found  great  fault  with  him,  and  ordered 
the  man  to  be  released  the  next  day.  He  is  sentenced, 
as  he  understands,  to  pay  the  half  of  the  value  of  the 
goods  stolen.  While  I  was  with  the  Pasha,  the  To- 
phenkyi  Bashi  was  enraged  with  this  poor  victim  for 
getting  the  assistance  of  the  Franks,  as  he  thought 
that  we  were  come  to  the  Pasha  on  his  account,  where- 
as our  visit  was  on  public  business  in  no  way  connect- 
ed with  this  affair.  It  appears  that  while  we  were 
sitting  on  the  divan  in  the  Pasha's  hall  of  audience, 
the  Tophenkyi  Bashi  was  employed  during  the  same 
time  in  inflicting  additional  torments  on  the  unfortu- 
nate oda  bashi ;  he  snapped  his  pistol  at  his  head,  and 
informed  him  that  the  Pasha  had  given  orders  that  he 


AFFAIR   OF  ARTIN.  93 


was  to  be  hanged  in  the  course  of  the  day.  The  oda 
bashi,  after  we  had  rescued  him  from  his  various  tor- 
mentors, presented  himself  before  me.  He  was  a 
good-looking  man,  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  with 
a  black  beard,  and  respectably  dressed  in  blue,  in  the 
style  usually  adopted  by  the  Armenian  Christians.  He 
said  he  had  been  tortured  by  the  order  of  the  Kiaya 
Bey ;  the  bones  were  put  to  his  temples,  some  of  his 
teeth  drawn,  his  nails  pierced,  his  left  thigh  torn  with 
pincers ;  he  was  hung  up  by  the  arms  by  ropes,  but 
the  hot  cup  was  not  placed  upon  his  head.  He  show- 
ed me  the  marks  of  the  pincers  and  other  scars  about 
his  body — evident  proofs  of  the  truth  of  his  assertion. 
The  two  soldiers  who  were  convicted  of  having  stolen 
the  goods  (the  oda  bashi  being  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
whole  transaction)  were  to  be  brought  before  the  Coun- 
cil on  the  following  Monday.  They  are  now  in  pris- 
on, and  will  be  sentenced  to  pay  the  other  half  of  the 
value  of  the  stolen  goods.  This  information  the  oda 
bashi  received  from  the  merchant  Mehemed,  the  own- 
er of  the  lost  property.  He  has  not  heard  any  other 
particulars  about  the  soldiers.  . 

From  the  above  account  it  appears  that  much  injus- 
tice may  probably  be  carried  on  by  the  inferior  officers 
of  the  government  which  never  gets  to  the  ears  of  the 
Pasha,  small  officials  being  notoriously  more  tyrannical  \^/ 
than  greater  men.  The  Pasha  himself  appears  to  be 
a  kind-hearted,  well-intentioned  man  in  a  general  way ; 
but,  in  cases  where  his  own  interest  is  not  directly  con- 
cerned, he  does  not  look  into  the  affairs  of  the  pashalik 
with  sufficient  keenness  to  prevent  his  subordinate  offi- 
cers from  practicing  various  acts  of  oppression  and  ex- 


try 

Of  T 


94  ARMENIA. 


tortion,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  good  old  times, 
when  Turkey,  like  the  United  States  of  America,  was 
a  land  of  liberty,  where  every  free  and  independent  cit- 
izen had  the  right  to  heat  his  own  nigger ;  for,  accord- 
ing to  some  doctors  of  the  law,  pashas,  vizirs,  &c,  might 
^  \  cut  off  a  few  heads  every  day  for  no  given  reason,  but 
just  for  amusement.  The  Sultan  had  the  privilege  of 
destroying  fourteen  lives  per  day  of  his  faithful  sub- 
jects, who  might  have  committed  no  crime ;  after  that 
number,  some  reason  was  expected  to  be  shown  for  the 
further  use  of  the  sword  and  bow-string  on  that  day. 
Now  the  case  is  altered :  fewer  crimes  are  committed 
in  Turkey  than  in  London,  and  the  Turkish  pashas  en- 
deavor to  stop  such  practices  as  are  considered  discred- 
itable on  the  part  of  the  inferior  officers ;  though  they 
have  to  contend  with  great  difficulties  in  a  country 
where  it  is  hardly  possible  to  get  at  the  truth,  and 
where  the  inferior  officers  have  for  generations  been 
accustomed  to  plunder  those  below  them,  directly  they 
are  out  of  sight  of  the  higher  authorities ;  trusting  to 
the  want  of  communication,  the  slight  knowledge  of 
writing,  and  the  many  obstacles  in  the  way  which  pre- 
vent the  poor  man's  story  getting  to  the  ears  of  the 
Pasha  or  the  Sultan,  who,  in  these  days  at  least,  are 
anxious  to  remedy  such  abuses,  and  to  distribute  jus- 
tice with  a  tolerably  impartial  hand.  I  had  great  sat- 
isfaction in  hearing  afterward  that,  owing  to  my  exer- 
tions in  this  and  other  cases — the  good  cause  being 
taken  up  warmly  by  Colonel  "Williams,  after  I  was  gone 
— all  torture  was  authoritatively  abolished  in  the  pasha- 
lik  of  Erzeroom ;  and  I  am  in  hopes  that,  except  in 
some  snug  little  dungeon  in  the  rocky  castle  of  a  half 


EXECUTION   OF   A  KOORD. 


95 


independent  Koordish  chief,  this  horrible  custom  is  al- 
most extinct. 

The  Koord  above  mentioned  was  hanged  in  so  orig- 
inal a  manner  that  I  must  shortly  describe  it,  as  it 
took  place  immediately  under  my  window.  "What  we 
called  at  school  a  cat-gallows  was  erected  close  to  a 
bridge,  over  the  little  stream  Which  ran  down  the  horse- 
market,  between  my  house  and  the  bottom  of  the  hill 
of  the  citadel.  The  culprit  stood  under  this  ;  the  cross- 
beam was  not  two  feet  above  his  head ;  a  kawass,  hav- 
ing tied  a  rope  to  one  end  of  the  beam,  passed  a  slip- 
knot round  the  neck  of  the  Koord,  a  young  and  very 
handsome  man,  with  long  black  hair;  he  then  drew 
the  rope  over  the  other  end  of  the  beam,  and  pulled 
away  till  the  poor  man's  feet  were  just  off  the  ground, 


when  he  tied  the  rope  in  a  knot,  leaving  the  dead  body 
hanging,  supported  by  two  ropes  in  the  form  of  the  let- 


96  ARMENIA. 


ter  V.     Hardly  any  one  was  looking  on,  and  in  the  aft- 
ernoon the  body  was  taken  down  and  buried. 

I  shall  always  consider  this  case  as  a  remarkable  in- 
stance of  the  power  of  fatalism  over  the  mind  of  an 
ignorant  and  superstitious  man.  This  Koord  was  en- 
tirely the  cause  of  his  own  execution:  no  one  knew 
him  by  sight  at  Erzeroom,  and  there  was  not  the  slight- 
est necessity  for  his  declaring  his  name  to  the  Pasha, 
and  confessing  that  he  had  committed  murders  and 
outrages  of  all  kinds  among  the  villages  of  Koord  is- 
taun.  His  punishment  for  stealing  a  horse  would  not 
have  been  very  severe,  and,  but  for  his  voluntary  ad- 
mission that  he  was  a  notorious  malefactor,  for  whom 
the  police  had  long  been  on  the  look-out,  he  might  have 
been  alive  to  this  day,  to  rob  and  murder,  till  somebody 
shot  him,  or  he  became  too  old  for  the  exertion.  Fa- 
talism, in  other  cases,  has  a  powerful  influence  over 
the  true  believers  in  the  armies  of  Islam.  The  soldier 
goes  to  battle  with  the  firm  belief  that,  if  his  hour  is 
not  come,  the  cannon  of  the  enemy  can  have  no  power 
over  him  ;  and  that  if  his  hour  is  arrived,  the  angel  of 
death  will  call  him,  whether  he  may  be  seated  on  his 
divan,  or  walking  in  full  health  in  his  garden  at  home : 
just  as  readily  does  he  bow  his  head  to  fate  in  one 
place  as  in  another.  By  this  institution  of  the  Koran, 
the  wonderful  genius  of  Mohammed  has  gained  many 
a  victory  by  the  hands  of  his  trusting  and  believing 
followers  for  the  caliphs  and  sultans  of  his  creed.  Some 
of  the  reforms  of  Sultan  Mahmoud,  by  treating  lightly 
many  of  the  ancient  prejudices  of  the  Osmanlis,  have 
shaken  the  throne  under  his  feet.  The  progress  of  in- 
fidelity, which  has  begun  at  Constantinople,  is  the  great- 


TURKS    AND    CHRISTIANS.  97 

est  temporal  danger  to  the  power  of  the  Turkish  em- 
pire. The  Turk  implicitly  believes  the  tenets  of  his 
religion ;  he  keeps  its  precepts  and  obeys  its  laws ;  he 
is  proud  of  his  faith,  and  prays  in  public  when  the  hour 
of  prayer  arrives.  How  different,  alas  !  is  the  manner 
in  which  the  divine  laws  of  Christianity  are  kept! 
The  Christian  seems  ashamed  of  his  religion ;  as  for 
obeying  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  they  have  no  per- 
ceptible effect  upon  the  mass  of  the  people,  among 
whom  drunkenness,  dishonesty,  and  immorality  prevail 
almost  unchecked,  except  by  the  fear  of  punishment 
in  this  world ;  while  in  Turkey  not  one  tenth  part  of 
the  crime  exists  which  is  annually  committed  in  Chris- 
tendom. 

A  few  days  after  this  occurrence,  as  I  was  sitting  in 
the  summer  chamber  at  the  top  of  the  house,  I  heard 
a  most  extraordinary  shuffling  and  screeching  behind 
the  curtain  which  hung  over  the  door ;  the  curtain 
shook  about,  and  numerous  subdued  voices  and  noises 
were  heard,  which  sounded  like  cocks  and  hens  suffer- 
ing from  strangulation.  I  shouted  out  to  know  what 
in  the  world  was  going  on ;  after  a  while  the  kawass 
drew  aside  the  curtain,  and  along  the  floor  advanced  a 
most  strange  and  incomprehensible  procession  of  sev- 
eral women  and  men,  crawling  on  their  hands  and 
knees,  each  with  a  cock  or  a  hen  in  their  hands,  whose 
fluttering,  and  screaming,  and  crowing  now  broke  forth 
in  full  chorus;  one  or  two  got  away,  and  flew  about 
the  room,  as  its  owner,  making  use  of  her  hands  to 
walk  with,  was  unable  to  hold  the  terrified  fowl.  This 
procession  advanced  to  the  divan,  and,  without  saying 
a  word,  the  foremost  woman  seized  hold  of  one  of  my 


98  ARMENIA. 


legs,  which  was  inadvertently  sticking  out,  and,  hold- 
ing on  to  my  ankle,  kissed  my  foot,  and  burst  out  into 
a  string  of  exclamations  in  Armenian,  no  one  word  of 
which  made  any  impression  on  my  understanding. 
Being  horribly  alarmed,  I  kicked  as  well  as  I  could, 
and,  having  escaped  into  the  remotest  corner  of  the 
divan,  I  begged  to  know  what  all  this  portended ;  and 
on  the  chickens  being  caught,  and  comparative  silence 
obtained,  I  found  that  these  were  the  family  of  the 
poor  oda  bashi,  who  had  brought  the  chickens  as  a 
present,  and  came  with  tears  to  thank  me  for  saving 
their  father,  brother,  or  husband.  They  were  really 
pained,  poor  people,  when  I  would  not  accept  the  cocks 
and  hens,  for,  though  of  little  value,  it  looked  like  re- 
ceiving a  bribe  for  justice ;  and,  after  a  long  explana- 
tion of  my  strange  notions,  they  walked  off  in  smiles 
upon  their  hind  legs,  the  cocks  crowing  triumphantly 
on  their  way  down  stairs. 


CLOCK   OF   ERZEROOM.  99 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Clock  of  Erzeroom. — A  Pasha's  Notions  of  Horology. — Pathology 
of  Clocks. — The  Tower  and  Dungeon. — Ingenious  Mode  of  Torture. 
— The  modern  Prison. 

In  the  citadel — a  place  which  might,  with  great 
ease,  be  rendered  very  strong,  but  which  now  is  desert- 
ed and  disused,  having,  I  believe,  been  knocked  to 
pieces  in  the  Russian  war — there  are  still  two  or  three 
curious  ancient  tombs  and  some  other  incomprehensi- 
ble old  buildings.  The  building  containing  the  prison, 
which  was  in  constant  use  in  the  good  old  times,  and 
the  tower,  from  whence  the  flag  of  Turkey  is  display- 
ed, possessed  an  old  clock,  which  had  been  out  of  order 
for  many  years  before  the  Russians  carried  it  away, 
but  which  was  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  all 
Koords,  Armenians,  and  strangers  from  the  mountains, 
to  whom  time  was  "no  object,"  and  who  considered 
this  old  clock,  with  its  dial  and  hands,  as  some  sort  of 
talisman  beyond  the  comprehension  of  ordinary  folks. 
Erzeroom  was  indeed  lifted  up  in  the  estimation  of 
those  unsophisticated  herdsmen  and  robbers,  as  the 
only  place  they  ever  heard  of  where  any  thing  in  the 
nature  of  a  clock  was'  to  be  seen.  It  might  happen 
that  some  few  of  those  who  not  only  were  possessed  of 
such  an  outlandish  article  as  a  watch,  but  who  were  in 
some  measure  initiated  into  the  uses  of  that  strange 
production,  would  expatiate  learnedly  in  the  coffee- 


100  ARMENIA. 


houses  on  the  wondrous  properties  of  the  great  talis- 
man in  the  tower  of  the  citadel,  which,  in  all  probabil- 
ity, from  its  great  size  and  exalted  position,  was  con- 
sidered as  the  father  of  all  the  little  watches  of  the 
sheikhs  and  chiefs  among  the  tribes.  As  for  the  clock 
not  going,  that  signified  but  little.  Talleyrand  said 
that  speech  was  accorded  to  man  for  the  purpose  of 
enabling  him  to  conceal  his  sentiments.  The  big 
clock  had  doubtless  his  reasons  for  holding  his  tongue, 
and  telling  no  lies;  I  believe  his  reputation  was  in- 
creased by  his  silence,  as  is  the  case  among  many 
other  distinguished  characters  besides  the  clock  of  Er- 
zeroom.  Now  it  came  to  pass,  once  upon  a  time,  that 
the  great  Pasha  or  viceroy  of  the  wide  realms  of  this 
great  pashalik  chanced  to  be  a  philosopher ;  he  knew 
that  clocks,  though  they  might  have  been  made  to  sell, 
besides  this  very  primary  quality,  also  ought  to  go,  but 
no  artificer  in  the  land  of  Armenia  was  competent  to 
accomplish  this  desirable  end.  Whenever  a  Frank 
traveler — not  that  there  ever  were  any  travelers  by 
profession  in  those  days — but  whenever  a  Frank  doctor 
or  hakim  made  his  appearance  in  those  regions,  he  was 
always  received  with  distinguished  civility  by  the  Pa- 
sha, who,  after  the  preliminaries  of  coffee,  Kef  enis 
ayi — "may  your  powers  of  enjoyment  be  in  good 
order !" — always  ended  with  an  expression  of  his  de- 
sire that  the  Frank  would  immediately  set  about  the 
repairs  of  the  clock. 

"  Sir,  your  excellency,"  said  the  poor  man,  "  I  am  a 
doctor ;  I  am  not  a  watchmaker  or  a  mechanic.  I 
don't  understand  clocks  ;  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  set 
the  clock  right ;  it  is  not  in  my  line  of  business.     I 


PATHOLOGY    OF    CLOCKS.  JQ^ 

am  very  sorry,  but,  0  Effendim,  I  fear  I  am  unable  to 
meet  your  wishes  in  this  point." 

"  Dog  of  a  Frank,"  quoth  the  Pasha,  "  great-grand- 
father's uncle  to  all  dogs,  more  particularly  those  of 
Frangistaun,  is  it  not  thy  base  profession  to  meddle 
with  the  bowels  of  mankind  ?  canst  thou  not  expel 
ginns,  and  evil  spirits,  and  other  things,  which  have 
taken  up  their  abode  in  the  innermost  recesses  of  the 
bodies  of  true  believers,  which  thine  eye  can  not  pene- 
trate, while,  nevertheless,  thou  turnest  their  livers  up- 
side down,  and  their  souls  inside  out ;  and  all  this  by 
the  accursed  aid  of  thy  wretched  Frankish  incanta- 
tions ;  shooting  thine  arrows  at  them,  or  rather  send- 
ing down  their  throats  certain  wicked  and  diabolical 
contrivances,  which  are  known  by  the  barbarians  of 
thy  benighted  country  by  the  name  of  pills?  Dost 
thou  pretend  to  see  all  that  is  going  on  in  the  stomach 
of  a  follower  of  the  Prophet,  and  wilt  thou  tell  me  with 
the  same  breath  that  thou  canst  not  administer  to  the 
disorganized  constitution  of  a  clock  ?  Hath  not  a  clock 
a  pulse,  when  he  is  alive  and  in  good  health?  Go 
thou,  feel  his  pulse,  and  see  whether  it  is  fast  or  slow ; 
whatever  thou  mayest  want,  thou  shalt  have  ;  my  ha- 
kim bashi  shall  assist  you,  only  cure  the  clock.  All 
Franks  make  clocks :  I  have  it  from  authority :  do  not 
pretend  that  thou  canst  not  set  the  clock  going  again, 
for  surely  thou  canst  restore  it  to  life,  and  make  it 
strike,  and  do  all  that  it  ought  to  do.  Behold,  thou 
art  a  Frank!  Guards !  take  the  Frank  up  into  the 
tower,  and  make  him  mend  the  clock  ;  and  if  the  un- 
believing dog  will  not  mend  the  clock,  then  put  him 
into  the  dungeon  down  below  till  he  confesses  that  he 


XQ2  ARMENIA. 


is  ready  to  do  as  he  is  commanded  by  the  Pasha  of  the 
true  believers." 

In  this  way  every  audience  concluded.  The  un- 
lucky Frank,  having  been  exalted  to  the  top  of  the 
tower,  and  exhorted  to  repair  the  rickety  old  clock, 
which  had  lost  half  its  works,  was  debased  into  the 
dungeon,  there  to  remain  till  further  notice.  Having 
often  heard  this  story  of  the  good  old  times,  I  one  day 
proceeded  to  the  citadel  to  see  the  tower  where  the 
clock  had  been,  and  to  examine  the  dungeon,  where  I 
should  have  been  sent  if  I  had  arrived  at  Erzeroom 
fifty  or  sixty  years  ago.  This  dungeon  really  was  a 
dungeon :  any  thing  so  terrible  as  an  abode  for  a  hu- 
man being  I  never  saw  before.  The  pozzi  at  Venice 
were  rather  pleasant  and  agreeable  places  of  retire- 
ment, compared  with  the  abode  of  many  a  poor  Frank, 
in  whose  education  the  art  and  craft  of  clockology  had 
been  unfortunately  omitted. 

At  the  foot  of  that  which  had  been  the  clock-tower 
was  a  range  of  small  low  rooms,  of  which  two  were 
particularly  belonging  to  the  prison :  the  outer  room 
of  the  two  was  larger  than  the  other  ;  this  was  appro- 
priated to  the  guards,  who  kept  watch  and  ward,  and 
who  fed,  or  did  not  feed,  the  wretched  prisoners  under 
their  care.  The  inner  room  was  small  and  low,  and 
had  one  window,  through  which  the  light  and  air  had 
to  struggle  with  the  opposition  of  heavy  crossed  and 
re-crossed  iron  bars.  The  window  looked  into  the 
castle  yard,  but  the  room  was  so  dark  that  I  could 
hardly  see  my  way. 

"  A  horrible  place  for  the  poor  prisoners,"  said  I  to 
my  guides ;  "  little  chance  of  their  escape  from  these 


THE    DUNGEON.  ^03 

thick  walls,  and  heavy  bars,  and  low,  strong  roof;  they 
must  have  been  safe  enough  here." 

"  Oh  Effendim,"  said  the  kawasses,  "  this  is  not  the 
prison.     Here  is  the  prison  at  your  feet,  down  below." 

"Where?"  said  I. 

"  Look  down,"  they  replied,  "  on  the  middle  of  the 
floor ;  there  is  the  entrance ;  you  can  not  see  the  dun- 
geon itself,  for  it  is,  perhaps,  a  little  dark." 

In  the  centre  of  the  floor  of  this  dismal  cell  was  a 
heavy  wrought-iron  grating,  square,  made  of  great 
bars,  about  six  inches  apart,  seemingly  of  enormous 
weight,  lying  on  the  ground,  and  fastened  down  with 
two  or  three  huge  rusty  padlocks  on  one  side,  and  some 
lumbering  old  hinges  on  the  other.  This  iron  grate 
was  opened  and  raised  up  for  my  especial  edification, 
and  there  appeared  under  it  the  mouth  of  a  narrow 
well  cut  in  the  rock,  perhaps  two  feet  and  a  half  in  di- 
ameter, which  sank  down  into  the  darkness  far  below. 
"  Now,"  said  my  informants,  "  if  you  stand  on  this 
side,  and  look  steadily  till  your  eye  is  accustomed  to 
the  gloom,  you  will  be  able  to  distinguish  something 
white  a  good  way  down ;  that  is  a  square  stone,  like 
a  table,  in  the  middle  of  the  vault,  upon  which  the 
jailers  let  down  the  provisions  for  the  prisoners,  as 
they  can  see  on  that  stone  when  the  things  arrive  at 
the  bottom."  This  was  the  old  dungeon,  the  common 
prison  not  many  years  ago ;  but,  I  believe,  since  the 
reign  of  Hadji  Kiamili  Pasha,  few  or  none  had  been 
consigned  to  this  horrible  abode.  The  shape  of  it  be- 
low, I  understood,  was  that  of  the  inside  of  a  bottle ; 
it  was  between  twenty  and  thirty  feet  deep  ;  vermin, 
dirt  and  filth,  and  foul  air,  formed  its  only  furniture ; 


204  ARMENIA. 


and  into  this  awful  hole  many  and  many  an  innocent 
man  had  been  let  down :  some  to  he  brought  up  again 
to  pay  a  ransom  of  all  that  they  possessed,  some  to  lin- 
ger there  for  years,  and  some  to  die  and  rot  unnoticed 
if  no  food  was  provided  for  them  by  government,  when 
their  bones,  if  not  their  flesh,  gave  token  to  the  next 
inhabitants  of  what  they  were  to  expect,  unless  their 
interest  or  their  wealth  was  greater  than  that  of  the 
poor  wretch  whose  remains  lay  there  before  them. 

An  ingenious  and  horrible  species  of  torture  was 
sometimes  added  to  the  discomforts  of  this  dread  abode : 
a  large  piece  of  raw  flesh  was  thrown  down  into  the 
dungeon;  the  vermin,  and  the  effluvia  which  it  pro- 
duced, added  to  other  miseries,  made  the  existence  of 
the  wretched  prisoner  almost  intolerable. 

The  modern  prison  is  bad  enough :  it  consists  of  a 
number  of  cells  opening  on  a  small  paved  court-yard. 
The  prisoners,  being  just  shoved  through  the  door, 
have  to  shift  for  themselves  inside,  where  a  kind  of 
Pandemonium  exists ;  the  stronger  Koords  bullying 
and  tyrannizing  over  the  weaker  felons,  who  have  nei- 
ther fire  nor  candle  during  the  intense  cold  of  a  great 
part  of  the  year :  so  I  was  told ;  but  I  was  not  there 
in  the  winter,  and  hope  these  unhappy  wretches  may 
be  allowed  a  little  tezek  occasionally  to  keep  their  dirty 
bodies  and  souls  together. 


SPRING   IN    ERZEROOM.  ^Q5 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Spring  in  Erzeroom. — Coffee-house  Diversions. — Koordish  Exploits. 
— Summer  Employment. — Preparation  of  Tezek. — Its  Varieties  and 

Uses. 

When  the  snows  of  winter  have  melted,  and  the  air 
becomes  more  temperate,  the  population  of  Erzeroom 
begin  to  revive.  The  women  and  children,  who,  like 
the  bears,  lemmings,  and  marmottes,  have  hybernated 
all  the  winter,  now  peep  with  red  eyes  out  of  their 
subterranean  habitations ;  those  streets  situated  upon 
hills,  as  most  of  them  are,  become  torrents  of  melted 
snow,  which  cut  deep  ravines  through  the  frozen  mass 
which  is  piled  up  many  feet  on  each  side ;  narrow 
paths  are  gradually  dug  out  from  the  low  doors  of  the 
Armenian  man-burrows  toward  the  central  river  of  the 
street ;  the  winking  children  creep  out  to  blink  their 
eyes  at  the  sun,  and  enjoy  the  fresh  air ;  tusty_cows, 
who  have  been  buried  for  eight  months,  come  slowly 
staring  out ;  every  now  and  then  a  more  adventurous 
infant  is  carried  away  by  the  stream,  and  its  body 
quickly  devoured  by  the  ravenous  dogs  at  the  out- 
skirts of  the  town ;  wolves,  it  is  said,  though  I  never 
saw  one,  prowl  about,  and  eat  the  dog  that  ate  the 
child,  that  came  out  to  see  the  weather  so  mild,  in  the 
street  by  the  house  that  (not)  Jack  built.  "Women 
now  scream  to  each  other  in  shrill  voices,  as  they  pitch 
down  large  wooden  spadefuls  of  half-melted  snow  upon 
the  heads  of  those  who  are  passing  in  the  street ;  knots 

E  2 


106  ARMENIA. 


of  Tartars,  Circassians,  and  Lazes,  and  Koords,  in  iron- 
heeled  boots  and  white  woolen  trowsers,  telf  lies  to 
each  other  at  the  doors  of  the  coffee-houses,  which  are 
answered  with  dignified  exclamations  of  Wullah !  Bil- 
lah !  nobody  believing  his  neighbor's  lie,  but  consider- 
ing straightway  how  he  can  invent  a  deliberate  false- 
hood to  lay  before  the  other  liars  in  his  turn.  Every 
now  and  then  one  of  these  stories  is  true,  when  a  ca- 
daverous-looking Koord,  hung  round  with  arms  and 
leaning  on  his  lance,  with  the  black  ostrich  feathers  at 
the  top,  being  a  practical  man  with  very  little  imagin- 
ation, coolly  relates  the  history  of  the  sacking  of  a  de- 
fenseless village,  where  murder  unresisted,  rapine,  sac- 
rilege in  the  burning  of  the  mosque,  and  spearing  the 
children  who  run  shrieking  from  the  flames  of  their 
homes,  bear  with  it  the  impress  of  truth,  with  the  con- 
viction on  the  part  of  any  honest  man  (if  there  should 
be  one  in  the  party)  that,  although  the  rest  are  liars, 
the  only  truthful  narrator  is  a  brute  of  that  atrocious 
kind,  that  the  falsehoods  of  the  rest  are  trifles,  like 
chaff  before  the  wind,  in  comparison  with  the  real  and 
true  experiences  of  this  infernal  child  of  hell.  Such 
as  this  are  the  Koords ;  their  only  virtue  is  that  they 
are  not  cowards ;  but,  although  they  subscribe  to  a 
nominal  adherence  to  the  Mohammedan  religion,  the 
most  liberal  Imaum  would  be  ashamed  to  own  them. 
The  Yezedis,  who  worship  the  devil,  are  angels  in  com- 
parison. Yet  they  are  superstitious  to  a  curious  de- 
gree, as  the  foregoing  anecdote  of  the  Koord  who  was 
hung  through  giving  evidence  about  himself  testifies. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  summer  the  whole  city 
of  Erzeroom  is  engaged,  even  to  desperation,  in  making 


PREPARATION   OF   TEZEK. 


107 


tezek ;  you  hear,  smell,  and  see  nothing  else.  How 
areTyou  off  for  tezek  ?  Tezek  katch,  chok  tezek,  tezek 
var  bourda  chok,  chok,  evet,  tezek  Effendim,  katch 
gooroosh :  in  short,  no  one  cares  for  any  thing  except 
tezek,  and  he  who  has  most  tezek  is  the  greatest  man, 
and  he  who  has  hut  little  tezek  he  is  naught — no  one 
cares  for  him,  or,  indeed,  for  any  thing  else  except  the 
one  absorbing  topic  of  tezek. 

The  cows,  and  bulls,  and  oxen  having  reappeared  on 
uppeFearth,  the  Augean  stable  is  cleared  out.  Tezek, 
the  only  fuel  of  Erzeroom,  consists  of  the  production 
into  which  the  said  oxen  have  converted  their  food  for 
many  months ;  it  is  trodden  down  hard,  and  is  dug  out 
by  zealous  Armenians,  and  brought  exultingly  to  the 
tops  of  the  houses ;  it  is  mixed  with  a  good  deal  of  the 
chopped  straw  with  which  horses,  and  oxen,  and  sheep 
are  fed  while  in  the  subterranean  stables ;  more  chop- 
ped straw  is  added,  mixed  with  water ;  and,  except  the 
higher  class  of  grandees,  such  as  the  Pasha,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, and  the  author,  all  true  men  were  em- 
ployed on  the  tops  of  their  houses,  treading  the  chop- 
ped straw  into  the  tezek  with  their  naked  feet,  their 
full  Turkish  trowsers  being  pulled  up  and  tied  with  a 
belt  round  their  waists.  With  a  stick  to  lean  upon, 
they  are  there  all  day,  trotting  about,  up  to  their  knees 
in  tezek,  shouting  to  each  other ;  Mohammed  bringing 
some  more  water  to  pour  upon  it ;  Hassan  staggering 
up  the  ladder  with  more  tezek  of  the  genuine  unadul- 
terated kind  from  the  recesses  of  the  stable  ;  Bekir  with 
a  great  basket  of  chopped  straw ;  and  then  all  set  to 
with  a  will,  and  tread  steadily  for  an  hour  or  two,  as 
sailors  do  round  a  capstan,  for  the  dear  life  ;  and  when 


108  ARMENIA. 


they  get  very  hot  they  wipe  their  brow  with  a  tezeky 
sleeve,  and  their  sleeve  with  a  fold  of  a  tezeky  trowser, 
so  that  they  become  altogether  tezekious  before  the 
sun  sets  upon  their  labors,  and  veils  his  nose,  if  not  his 
eyes,  under  the  clouds  which  hang  over  the  eternal 
snows  in  the  dreaded  passes  of  the  mountains  of  Hosha- 
bounar.  The  tezek  being  trodden  into  a  stiff  clayey 
state,  about  six  or  seven  inches  thick,  is  left  alone  for 
a  day  or  two  to  dry;  amateurs,  however,  scrambling 
up  to  the  top  of  the  house  to  see  how  it  is  going  on,  to 
pick  a  bit  off,  and  look  at  it  cunningly,  and  smell  it,  to 
find  whether  it  has  the  true  flavor.  There  are  Arme- 
nians who  are  knowing  in  tezek,  who  understand  the 
thing ;  and  over  a  remarkably  good  batch  a  knot  of 
the  fancy  will  sit  on  little  stools,  and  smoke  their  pipes, 
and  discuss  the  question  scientifically  ;  telling  tales  of 
former  celebrated  heaps,  and  of  Hadji  such  a  one,  who 
was  famous  in  that  line,  and  of  one  Bokchi  Bashi,  who 
had  an  astonishing  talent  in  the  preparation  of  inimita- 
ble tezek. 

"When  it  is  all  ready,  it  is  dug  out  in  square  blocks, 
and  carried  down  the  ladders  again  carefully  in  open 
baskets,  and  piled  up  in  the  inner  treasuries  below,  and 
stored  for  the  fuel  of  the  future  winter.  It  is  better 
for  being  old,  when  it  resembles  peat  turf.  It  gets 
somewhat  dusty  in  a  year  or  so,  and  then  rivals  that 
sort  of  snuff  called  Irish  blackguard  in  its  capacity  for 
making  you  sneeze,  if  you  venture  to  move  a  clod  of  it 
to  put  upon  the  fire;  it  then  burns  clear  and  clean, 
without  flame,  and  is  very  hot ;  but  when  more  fresh 
— though  that  is  not  the  word — more  new,  I  may  say 
— it  produces  a  thick  stifling  smoke,  very  odoriferous, 


T  E  Z  E  K.  109 


and  not  generally  appreciated  by  those  who  do  not  love 
tezek  for  itself,  or  who  are  not  at  that  time  maneuver- 
ing to  make  you  purchase  an  astounding  bargain  of 
the  precious  fuel  of  their  own  particular  manufacture. 
Erzeroom  is  not  alone  in  the  production  of  this  arti- 
cle of  merchandise.  From  thence  through  the  whole 
of  Tartary  as  we  call  it,  or  Turkistaun  as  they  call  it, 
this  fuel  is  in  universal  use  as  far  as  the  Great  "Wall 
of  China.  Great  care  is  taken  sometimes  in  the  pro- 
duction of  it  for  various,  artistic  purposes.  In  Thibet  it 
is  called  arghol,  and  in  the  very  remarkable  travels  of 
M.  Hue,  it  is  related  that  that  which  comes  from  sheep 
and  goats  is  more  valuable  for  the  purpose  of  smelting 
iron  and  other  metals,  as  it  gives  a  greater  heat,  and, 
instead  of  leaving  any  ash,  melts  into  a  vitreous  mass 
of  a  bluish  green  color.  I  never  saw  any  of  this  my- 
self, though  it  may  have  been  used  at  Erzeroom,  for 
this  place  was  lately  famous  for  the  workmanship  in 
iron  and  steel  by  seven  brothers,  whose  productions  are 
valuable  under  the  name  of  Yedi  Kartasch,  as  Man- 
ton  added  a  value  to  those  guns  to  which  his  name 
was  affixed.  The  tezek  of  oxen  and  cows  ranks  next; 
that  of  horses  and  donkeys  last,  from  the  quantity  of 
smoke. produced  by  it ;  that  of  the  oxen,  with  the  slight- 
est possible  flavor  of  donkey,  was  certainly  most  fash- 
ionable at  Erzeroom. 


110 


ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Prophet  of  Khoi. — Climate. — Effects  of  great  Elevation  above 
the  Sea. — The  Genus  Homo. — African  Gold-diggings. — Sale  of  a 
Family. — Site  of  Paradise. — Tradition  of  Khosref  Purveez. — Flow- 
ers.— A  Flea-antidote. — Origin  of  the  Tulip. — A  Party  at  the  Cave 
of  Ferhad,  and  its  Results. — Translation  from  Hafiz. 

The  atmospheric  peculiarities  of  this  climate  are 
such,  that  the  weather,  as  a  general  rule,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  on  the  way  from  bad  to  worse.  Earthquakes 
more  or  less  severe  are  often  felt.  A  severe  one  occur- 
red in  the  year  1843,  and  in  the  same  year  the  town 
of  Khoi  was  almost  entirely  destroyed  by  one  of  these 
a wfuT  convulsions  of  nature.  A  circumstance  occur- 
red on  that  occasion  which  was  very  remarkable,  if 
true.  A  dervish  or  fakir  of  distinguished  sanctity 
felt  himself  about  to  die,  and,  calling  his  friends  and 
disciples  around  the  couch  of  skins  on  which  he  lay,  he 
prophesied  that  a  terrible  disaster  was  about  to  fall 
upon  the  town  of  Khoi ;  that  the  lives  of  many  would 
fall  into  the  hands  of  Monkir  and  Nakir  on  that  day ; 
but  that  those  faithful  believers  who  accompanied  his 
body  to  the  tomb  would  be  permitted  to  escape  from 
the  sword  of  the  avenging  angel  for  his  sake.  The  old 
man  died,  and,  being  held  in  universal  reverence,  the 
greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Khoi  followed  his 
corpse  to  the  burial-ground,  which  was  situated  at 
some  distance  from  the  town.  While  absent  on  this 
pious  errand,  a  tremendous  earthquake  suddenly  re- 


CLIMATE. 


Ill 


duced  the  city  to  ruin.  So  complete  was  the  destruc- 
tion that  hardly  a  house  was  left  standing,  and  many 
of  those  who  had  remained  at  home  perished  in  the  fall 
of  their  habitations,  while  those  who  had  accompanied 
the  body  of  the  dervish  to  the  grave  were  saved  from 
the  disaster,  as  he  had  prophesied. 

This  is  a  wonderful  story ;  I  heard  it  at  the  time, 
and  was  very  much  struck  with  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  case.  Its  accuracy  would  be  difficult 
either  to  prove  or  to  disprove,  but  the  history  as  I  have 
narrated  it  was  current  at  the  time  when  the  earth- 
quake happened. 

Pillars  of  dust,  like  those  of  sand  seen  in  the  deserts 
of  Africa  and  Arabia,  are  supposed  to  be  the  works  of 
evil  spirits,  and  often  stalk  like  giants  across  the  plain. 
The  deep  narrow  valleys  and  ravines  which  slope  down 
from  the  elevated  plateau  of  Erzeroom,  are  unhealthy 
and  pestilential  in  the  extreme,  while  the  inhabitants 
of  the  upper  country  enjoy  good  health  enough.  Here 
the  corn  returns  about  five-fold  to  the  labor  of  the  sow- 
er :  one  being  retained  for  seed,  four  bushels  is  the  ex- 
tent of  the  profit  of  the  husbandman  for  one  which  he 
had  sown.  The  summer,  though  very  short,  is  hot 
and  parching,  the  thermometer  being  usually  about 
84,  though  it  rises  occasionally,  I  think,  to  nearly  90. 
The  cold  in  winter  is  commonly  16  degrees  below  zero 
of  Fahrenheit,  and  is  often  colder.  The  mercury  in 
my  thermometer,  which  was  not  calculated  for  such  a 
climate,  quietly  retired  into  the  ball  in  the  autumn, 
and  never  came  out  again  while  I  remained  at  Erze- 
room. The  great  height  of  the  town  above  the  sea 
was  exemplified  in  a  practical  manner  to  me  on  my 


112  ARMENIA. 


first  arrival.  I  was  in  a  state  of  constant  wrath  about 
the  tea:  the  tea  was  excellent,  of  the  very  best  quali- 
ty, but  the  decoction  thereof  was  always  a  failure.  In 
vain  was  the  kettle  placed  upon  the  fire  by  my  side; 
in  vain  did  the  semavar,  the  best  of  tea-urns,  boil  and 
steam.  Double,  double,  toil  and  trouble !  the  fire  burn- 
ed and  the  caldron  bubbled,  but  the  tea  was  vapid. 
As  for  the  eggs,  I  don't  know  how  long  it  took  to  boil 
them  till  the  white  was  fixed.  The  reason  of  all  this 
only  occurred  to  me  one  day  when  I  put  my  finger 
into  some  almost  boiling  water,  which  by  no  means 
scalded  me — for  water  boiled  at  196°  of  Fahrenheit,  as 
we  were  between  7000  and  8000  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea;  and,  consequently,  though  boiling  and 
steaming  away,  it  was  not  hot  enough  to  produce  the 
effects  of  water  boiling  at  the  heat  of  212°,  which  is 
the  temperature  at  which  it  boils  in  London. 

Nature  has  provided  a  kettle  of  her  own,  in  a  hot 
spring  at  Elije,  near  which  place  I  was  informed  that 
there  was  a  rock  against  which  iron  stuck  of  its  own 
accord — a  rock  of  loadstone ;  but  I  never  had  an  op- 
portunity of  verifying  this  report. 

The  natural  history  of  the  highlands  of  Armenia  is 
particularly  interesting,  and  rich  in  flowers  hardly 
known  to  Europeans,  and  in  the  prodigious  quantities 
of  birds  which  breed  on  the  plain  of  Erzeroom,  and  in 
the  valleys  and  water-courses  of  the  neighborhood. 

The  quadrupeds  are  not  numerous  \  the  climate  is 
too  rigorous  for  those  not  provided  with  thick  furs  to 
protect  them  from  the  tremendous  cold. 

The  fish  consist  only  of  a  sort  of  barbel,  which  is 
found  in  the  high  waters  of  the  Euphrates,  and  of 


THE    GENUS    HOMO. 


113 


three  kinds  ofJ;rout,  swarming  in  the  lesser  streams 
and  rivulets  which  How  down  from  the  snowy  mount- 
ain-tops. 

To  commence  with  the  highest  order  of  mammalia : 
some  extraordinary  specimens  of  the  genus  Homo  are 
to  be  met  with  in  many  parts  of  the  East,  generally  in 
the  character  of  Frank  doctors.  Erzeroom  was  not 
wanting  in  productions  of  this  kind.  The  character 
of  these  adventurers  is  in  every  instance  precisely 
alike  :  they  are  all  sharp  and  so-called  clever  men, 
speaking  several  languages  correctly,  with  a  smatter- 
ing of  general  knowledge,  hut  understanding  nothing 
perfectly,  and  all  wanting  in  the  same  two  qualities — 
judgment  and  principle,  the  consequence  of  which 
want  is,  that  not  one  in  a  hundred  succeeds  in  life, 
and,  after  passing  through  a  series  of  strange  changes 
of  fortune,  they  usually  die  unlamented,  as  poor  as 
when  they  began  their  erratic  career. 

The  adventures  of  one  old  gentleman,  with  whom  I 
was  acquainted  here,  was  so  extraordinary  and  uncom- 
mon, that  a  history  of  them  would  fill  a  volume.  After 
this  man's  death,  it  appeared  that  he  was  not  himself, 
but  somebody  else  ;  and  his  true  name  being  the  same 
as  that  of  a  person  I  had  met,  many  years  before,  at 
Wadi  Haifa,  or  at  Assouan,  high  up  the  Nile,  made  me 
suspect  that  these  two  persons  were  the  same.  One 
half  of  this  character  certainly  died  in  a  khan  at  Er- 
zeroom ;  but  as  I  do  not  know  whether  the  other  half 
is  dead,  or  whether  the  two  were  really  one  or  not,  I 
must  forbear  the  strange  narration  of  their  lives,  for 
fear  something  might  meet  the  eyes  of  their  friends  or 
relations — if  they  had  any — who,  perhaps,  may  be 


114  ARMENIA. 


under  the  pleasing  delusion  that  their  respected  rela- 
tive was  an  honor  to  their  name, 

I  must,  however,  relate  a  little  anecdote  of  the 
Egyptian  half  of  my  acquaintance.  At  Assouan,  he- 
low  the  Cataracts,  I  saw  an  extraordinary-looking  hoat, 
built  of  hits  of  hard  wood,  like  iron- wood,  each  about 
two  feet  long,  caulked  or  cemented  in  the  seams  with 
reeds  and  mud,  precisely  in  the  manner  in  which  the 
ancient  boats  are  represented  in  the  hieroglyphics. 
This  strange  vessel  was  of  large  size,  and  was  navi- 
gated by  a  crew  of  blacks,  of  a  tribe  with  which  I  was 
not  acquainted.  The  proprietor  of  the  ship  was  dress- 
ed in  a  much  worn  and  old-fashioned  Turkish  dress ; 
his  cabin  was  carpeted  with  lion-skins ;  his  cushions 
were  the  skins  of  some  small  deer,  stuffed.  He  was 
very  civil,  and  spoke  in  the  French  language  to  me, 
while  he  gave  his  orders  to  his  servants  in  a  dialect 
which  bore  little  resemblance  to  Arabic,  but  which  be- 
longed to  some  distant  region  of  the  interior  of  Africa, 
where  he  had  been  living  many  years.  His  personal 
servants  were  the  handsomest  negroes  I  had  ever  seen : 
though  they  were  dressed  as  men,  I  found  they  were 
girls  ;  one,  who  was  beautiful,  was  his  wife.  He  was 
an  interesting  personage,  and  appeared  on  friendly 
terms  with  his  black  attendants,  who  looked  forward 
with  great  glee  to  the  wondrous  sights  which  they 
were  to  see  at  Cairo.  After  listening  to  some  curious 
stories  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  black  na- 
tions of  the  interior,  unknown  to  Europeans,  he  showed 
me  three  or  four  strongly-made  iron-bound  chests, 
which,  on  being  opened,  proved  to  be  full  of  gold,  to 
the  amount  of  some  thousands  of  pounds  ;  some  was 


AFRICAN    "DIGGINGS."  ^5 

in  nuggets,  but  most  part  of  it  was  in  the  form  of 
rings  the  size  of  bracelets,  and  others  the  size  of  large 
heavy  finger-rings,  all  of  pure  gold.  These  rings  were 
passed  as  money,  and  were  of  the  exact  form  of  those 
used  for  the  same  purpose  by  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
and  of  the  rings  found  in  Celtic  and  British  tombs. 
Independent  of  their  intrinsic  value,  they  were  exceed- 
ingly curious  ;  and  he  said  gold  might  be  procured  in 
great  quantities  in  the  mountains  beyond  Darfoor. 
Here,  then,  is  an  opening  for  some  future  diggings,  and 
an  object  to  promote  discoveries  in  the  centre  of  Afri- 
ca. My  informant  was  a  European,  of  the  same  na- 
tion and  the  same  name  as  the  person  whom  I  met  at 
Erzeroom,  but  I  now  doubt  whether  the  two  were  or 
were  not  the  same.  Some  time  afterward  I  made  in- 
quiries at  Cairo  about  this  singular  adventurer,  when 
I  heard  that  he  had  sold  his  strange  vessel,  his  wife, 
his  servants,  and  his  crew,  to  their  astonishment  and 
dismay,  for  they  did  not  consider  themselves  as  slaves, 
and  he  had  taken  his  departure  for  Europe  with  his 
gold  rings  and  the  produce  of  the  sale  of  his  confiding 
family. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  Erzeroom  is 
supposed  be  the  site  of  the  terrestrial  paradise.  The 
reason  of  this  supposition  is  deduced  from  the  fact  of 
so  many  great  and  famous  rivers  taking  their  rise  in 
this  exalted  region. 

About  three  hours  from  Erzeroom,  passing  the  an- 
cient monastery  of  Kuzzul  Yank,  on  the  way  to  Tor- 
toom  and  Kars,  a  rocky  top  of  a  mountain  rises  about 
two  thousand  feet  above  the  plain,  and  consequently 
about  ten  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 


HQ  ARMENIA. 


Standing  on  one  spot  upon  this  mountain,  the  traveler 
can  see  the  sources,  beneath  his  feet,  of  the  Euphrates, 
the  Araxes,  and  the  river  which  falls  into  the  Black 
Sea  in  the  pestilential  neighborhood  of  Batoum;  one 
river  falling  into  the  Persian  Grulf,  one  into  the  Cas- 
pian, and  one  into  the  Black  Sea.  The  traditions  of 
the  country  relate  that  the  flowers  of  paradise  bloomed 
in  luxuriant  splendor  in  this  now  barren  region  till  the 
days  of  Khosref  Purveez.  This  mighty  Persian  mon- 
arch, "  the  Great  King,"  was  encamped  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates,  on  the  plains  of  Erzeroom,  when  a 
messenger  arrived  from  the  Prophet  Mohammed,  then 
an  insignificant  pretender,  offering  this  magnificent 
sovereign  protection  if  he  would  give  up  the  religion 
of  his  fathers  and  embrace  the  faith  of  Islam.  Khos- 
ref Purveez,  in  derision,  threw  the  letter  from  the 
prophet  into  the  waters  of  the  river,  when  Nature,  in 
dismay,  withered  all  her  trees  and  flowers,  and  the 
bounteous  stream,  which  formerly  bestowed  wealth 
and  abundance  to  the  country  on  its  shores,  shrank 
into  its  bed,  and,  refusing  to  fertilize  the  earth,  cold, 
and  frost,  and  barrenness  have  been  ever  since  the  con- 
sequence of  the  impiety  of  the  Persian  king  :  not  only 
this,  but  the  days  of  his  ancient  empire  were  number- 
ed ;  and  in  the  days  of  Yesdijird,  a  few  years  after  this 
event,  the  blacksmith's  apron,  the  victorious  standard 
of  Persia,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Mohammedan  gen- 
eral, at  the  great  battle  of  Kudseah,  where  the  sun  of 
Persia  set  to  rise  no  more. 

Among  the  rocks,  not  far  from  Erzeroom,  is  an  arti- 
ficial cavern,  hewn  out  of  the  mountain  side  by  Fer- 
had,  the  successful  rival  of  Khosref  in  the  affections  of 


FLOWERS. 


117 


the  beautiful  Shireen.  It  was  here—or  others  say  at 
Beysittoon — that  Ferhad  threw  himself  from  the  prec- 
ipice on  hearing  the  false  intelligence  that  Shireen  was 
dead  ;  and  that  famous  beauty  herself  died  on  seeing 
the  remains  of  the  mighty  Khosref,  who  had  been  mur- 
dered by  his  own  son  Schiroueh  out  of  jealousy  and 
love  for  her. 

From  the  tops  of  the  mountains  surrounding  Erze- 
room  the  snowy  summit  of  Mount  Ararat  can  be  seen 
— another  monument  in  the  history  of  the  cradle  of 
the  human  race,  and  at  its  feet  the  town  of  Nackche- 
van  was  built  by  Noah,  on  his  descent  from  the  ark. 
This  was  the  first  city  built  by  man  after  the  Flood, 
according  to  Armenian,  and  I  think  also  Mohammed- 
an, tradition. 

Some  slight  remains  of  paradise  are  left,  even  to  our 
days,  in  the  form  of  the  most  lovely  flowers,  which  I 
gathered  on  the  very  hill  from  whence  the  three  rivers 
take  their  departure  to  their  distant  seas.  Though  one 
of  them  has  a  Latin  scientific  name,  no  plant  of  it  has 
ever  been  in  Europe,  and  by  no  manner  of  contrivance 
could  we  succeed  in  carrying  one  away.  This  most 
beautiful  production  was  called  in  Turkish,  Yedi  kar- 
tash  kane  (Seven  brothers'  blood),  in  Latin,  Ravanea, 
or  Philipea  coccinea,  a  parasite  on  absinthe,  or  worm- 
wood. This  is  the  most  beautiful  flower  conceivable : 
it  is  in  the  form  of  a  lily,  about  nine  to  twelve  inches 
long,  including  the  stalk ;  the  flower  and  stalk,  and 
all  parts  of  it,  resembling  crimson  velvet ;  it  has  no 
leaves ;  it  is  found  on  the  sides  of  the  mountains  near 
Erzeroom,  often  in  company  with  the  Morena  Orien- 
talis,  a  remarkable  kind  of  thistle,  with  flowers  all  up 


118  ARMENIA. 


the  stalk,  looking  and  smelling  like  the  honeysuckle. 
Another  beautiful  flower  found  here  has  not  been  de- 
scribed. It  grows  among  rocks,  and  has  a  tough  car- 
roty root,  two  feet  or  more  in  length;  the  leaves  are 
long  grassy  filaments,  forming  a  low  bush,  like  a  tus- 
sock of  coarse  grass ;  under  the  leaves  appear  the  flow- 
ers. Each  plant  has  twelve  or  twenty  of  them  (like 
large  white-heart  cherries  on  a  stalk),  in  the  form  of  a 
bunch  of  grapes,  eight  or  ten  inches  long ;  these  flow- 
ers are  merely  colored  bladders  holding  the  seed.  An 
iris,  of  a  most  brilliant  flaming  yellow,  is  found  among 
the  rocks,  and  it,  as  well  as  all  the  more  remarkable 
flowers  of  this  country,  blooms  in  the  spring  soon  after 
the  melting  of  the  snow — that  is  to  say,  about  June. 

Pire  otou,  a  herb,  which  is  sold  here  in  powder  (An- 
themis  rosea,  aut  carnea),  instantly  kills  fleas  and  oth- 
er insects,  and  would  be  invaluable  to  travelers  in  warm 
climates.  We  possessed  a  certain  little  dog  called 
Fundook  (a  nut),  who  held  the  important  position  of 
turnspit  in  our  kitchen :  he  was  a  wise  dog,  with  a 
look  of  dignity  about  him  like  a  dog  in  office,  and  one 
that  had  something  on  his  mind  and  knew  more  than 
he  would  say.  He  turned  out  his  elbows  and  turned 
in  his  toes,  and  sat  at  the  door  in  a  solemn  attitude 
when  not  employed  on  the  business  of  the  nation.  In 
the  pursuit  of  his  vocation  he  became  sadly  vexed  with 
fleas,  and  his  dignity  suffered  from  the  necessity  of 
scratching  with  his  hind  leg,  just  like  a  common,  vul- 
gar dog.  Commiserating  his  condition,  one  of  the 
grooms  went  to  the  expense  of  five  paras  (one  farthing 
sterling),  with  which  he  purchased  two  good  handfuls 
of  powdered  leaves  of  Pire  otou,  the  effect  of  which 


A  PARTY  AT  THE  CAVE  OF  FERHAD.  \±C) 

was  magical :  in  one  minute  every  flea  was  dead,  and 
Fundook  swaggered  into  the  kitchen  quite  a  renovated 
dog. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  the  tulip  owes 
its  origin  to  the  blood  of  Ferhad,  which  was  sprinkled 
on  the  ground  when  he  threw  himself  from  the  rocks 
in  despair,  on  hearing  of  the  death  of  his  glorious  Shi- 
reen.  In  this  story  we  see  how  one  beautiful  idea  is 
copied  and  admired  by  mankind  in  the  most  distant 
regions,  times,  and  circumstances,  for  this  is  the  same 
tradition  as  that  of  the  Anemone,  which,  in  classic  lore, 
arose  from  the  blood  of  Adonis  while  Yenus  was  weep- 
ing for  his  loss. 

Upon  a  day  we  gave  a  party  at  the  cave  of  Ferhad ; 
this  was  a  rare  function  ;  parties  were  not  common  at 
Erzeroom. 

"  When  the  Orient  sun  arose,  and  shed  his  golden 
beams  o'er  the  snowy  peaks  of  the  mountains  of  the 
East,  Apollo  on  that  day  must  have  reined  in  his  steeds 
in  wonder  at  the  unwonted  stir  that  was  taking  place 
at  Erzeroom,  as  Aurora  withdrew  the  purple  veil  of 
night  from  the  features  of  fair  mother  Earth,  refresh- 
ed with  the  slumbers  she  had  enjoyed  under  the  guard- 
ianship of  Endymion.  She  of  the  rosy  fingers  doubt- 
less started  up  in  beautiful  surprise  at  the  bustle  and 
the  activity  displayed  beneath  her  gaze.  Phoebus,  not 
resisting  the  pleasure  of  curiosity,  gazed  down  in  all  his 
glory  on  the  Armenian  plain,  where  horses  neighed,  and 
cattle  lowed,  and  hasty  marmitons  laded  ox-eyed  oxen 
with  bright  coppers  from  the  kitchen  shelves ;  wains 
were  there  laden  with  wide  tubs  of  cooling  snow ; 
cooks,  in  a  perspiration,  swore  deep  oaths;  the  voice 


120  ARMENIA. 


official  of  Fundook  was  heard  yelping  and  barking  in 
the  morning  breeze,  and  under  SoTs  first  rays  a  cara- 
van set  forth  in  long,  dark  outline,  winding  o'er  the 
plain  of  Erzeroom."  For  the  rest,  see  Homer,  unpub- 
lished edition,  cap.  x. 


Fundook. 


All  the  rank  and  fashion  of  the  place  were  present ; 
the  rank  rode  on  horseback,  the  fashion  followed  in  a 
cart  drawn  by  four  oxen — this  would  sound  better  if 
it  were  called  an  araba — and  therein  was  contained 
all  the  beauty  of  the  city  of  Erzeroom.  The  distance 
may  have  been  ten  miles ;  some  of  the  party  got  there 
in  three  quarters  of  an  hour,  and  others  arrived  in  an 
hour  and  three  quarters.  Among  the  distinguished 
guests  were  two  philosophers,  one  of  whom,  having 
lately  arrived  in  these  unknown  regions,  was  remark- 
able for  the  glorious  colors  of  his  waistcoat.  This  ef- 
fulgent garment  having  been  admired,  the  answer  was 
returned  in  the  following  mysterious  sentence,  as  I 
well  remember,  in  a  language  unknown,  as  far  as  my 
knowledge  is  experienced,  in  any  nation  upon  earth: 
"  Zest  mon  vamme,  gui  ma  tonne  ze  chilet."     Our  ad- 


CAREFUL   PACKING.  ^21 

miration  of  the  chilet  gave  way  before  the  announce- 
ment that  the  carriage  and  four  was  approaching  the 
cave,  and  all  sallied  forth  to  receive  the  lovely  dam- 
sels that  it  bore.  Through  many  a  quag,  o'er  many  a 
rock,  and  many  a  jolt  had  those  oxen  drawn  the  araba 
for  many  a  weary  hour  before  they  lay  down  in  front 
of  our  cave ;  and  now  it  was  the  happy  lot  of  those 
who  got  there  first  to  hand  out  of  their  carriage  the 
admired  beauties  of  Armenia.  The  carriage  stopped, 
and  we  were  in  readiness,  our  feelings  of  politeness 
screwed  up  to  the  most  perfect  tone — 

When  the  pie  was  opened, 

The  birds  began  to  sing  : 
Wasn't  that  a  dainty  dish 

To  set  before  a  king  1 

But  the  birds  did  not  come  out — there  was  much  to  be 
done  before  that  desired  object  was  concluded :  first, 
out  came  a  cushion,  then  a  feather-bed,  and  then  a 
pretty  girl ;  then  another  cushion,  then  another  lovely 
damsel ;  then  three  or  four  more  cushions,  and  another 
feather-bed,  and  then  the  prettiest  little  girl  of  all  jump- 
ed upon  the  ground,  half  laughing  and  half  smothered ; 
for  such  dainty  goods  would  have  broken  all  to  bits  on 
those  rough  roads,  if  they  had  not  been  packed  so  care- 
fully. The  mother  of  the  three  graces  accompanied 
them,  and,  the  party  being  assembled,  the  great  busi- 
ness of  life  commenced  in  earnest.  Dolmas,  and  kie- 
ufte,  and  cabobs  soon  graced  the  board- — not  that  there 
was  any  board,  but  it  sounds  well.  '^Viands,"  that  is, 
chickens,  lamb  stewed  with  quinces,  and  all  manner 
of  good  things,  appeared  and  disappeared,  to  the  won- 
der of  certain  hungry  Koords  who  happened  to  be  pass- 

F 


^22  ARMENIA. 


ing,  and  who  would  have  been  run  through  with  the 
spits,  if  not  devoured  by  Fundook,  our  brave  ally,  if 
they  had  made  a  row.  v  Corks  from  foreign  bottles  of 
champagne  popped  in  brisk  salute.  Cooks  and  ka- 
wasses,  grooms,  arabagis,.  eiwasses,  and  heiwans  fol- 
lowed the  good  example  set  them  by  their  lords,  and, 
"  fruges  consumere  nati,"  did  their  best  to  follow  the 
end  of  their  creation.  Then,  and  on  that  occasion  only, 
did  many  a  lantern-jawed,  hook-nosed  Koord  imbibe  the 
unknown  potations  of  Frangistaun.  Then,  in  glorious 
generosity,  did  the  trusty  xnarmiton  dispense  the  bones 
of  slaughtered  lamb,  drumsticks  of  fowl,  and  crust  of 
pie,  whereof  repletion  dire  denied  the  power  to  partake. 
By  staggering  chiboukgis  pipes  were  next  produced, 
and  fragrant  coffee,  served  on  salvers  bright ;  and,  on 
soft  Persian  carpets  now  reclined,  the  party  enjoyed 
the  scene  before  them,  passing  an  agreeable  afternoon 
in  each  other's  society,  accompanied,  I  thought,  with 
some  little  flirtations  between  some  of  the  company, 
which,  I  suspect,  left  pleasing  recollections  on  their 
minds ;  for  though  I  can  not  boast  that  any  thing  came 
of  it  that  day,  yet  not  long  afterward  two  marriages 
were  declared  between  some  of  those  who  assisted  at 
the  dinner  in  the  cave  of  Ferhad ;  and  the  most  anxious 
chaperon  will  acknowledge  that  that  was  as  much  as 
could  be  expected  under  the  circumstances,  seeing  that 
there  were  but  two  unmarried  ladies  of  the  company. 
Afterward  I  found  among  my  papers  the  following 
doleful  ditty,  purporting  to  be  a  translation  of  Hafiz, 
on  the  fertile  Persian  subject  of  Ferhad  and  Shireen ; 
and  as  the  reader  is  not  obliged  to  read  it  unless  he 
likes  to  do  so,  I  subjoin  it  in  memory  of  the  day  that  I, 


TRANSLATION    FROM    HAFIZ.  ]  £;-> 

for  my  part,  passed  so  pleasantly  with  many  agreeable 
companions  in  this  unfrequented  spot.  The  accompa- 
niment to  the  air  having  been  kindly  undertaken  by 
Fundook,  the  minstrel  thus  begins : 

Hafiz,  who  pass'd  his  sunny  hours 

By  the  sweet  stream  of  Mosellay, 
Singing  of  vineyards  and  of  flowers 

To  pass  the  fleeting  time  away, 

Tells  how  the  blood  of  Ferhad's  wound 
Had  stain'd  fair  Nature's  mantle  green, 

Sprinkling  with  ruddy  spots  the  ground 
Before  the  feet  of  fair  Shireen. 

The  tulip  from  his  blood  arose 

Beside  her  path  in  that  sad  hour. 
Displaying  how  its  leaves  inclose 

A  goblet  in  each  opening  flower. 

Then  to  the  lips  the  goblet  press, 
Whose  rim  contains  forgetfulness. 


The  vine,  the  glorious  vine,  arose, 
Unscathed  by  crime,  unchanged  by  woes, 

Exulting  in  her  charms  ; 
Waving  her  tendrils  in  the  breeze, 
And  clasping  the  rough,  rugged  trees 

In  her  encircling  arms. 

With  clustering  grapes  upon  her  brow, 
Still  as  she  binds  each  willing  bough 

Their  welcome  aid  she  gains  ; 
On  them  she  leans,  but  they  confess 
The  power  of  her  loveliness, 
And  glory  in  their  chains. 

Fill  up  the  bright  and  sparkling  bowl, 
That  cures  the  body,  heals  the  soul. 

No — be  it  not  refused — 
Hail  to  the  vine  !  whose  purple  juice 
Was  sent  on  earth  for  mortals'  use, 

But  not  to  be  abused. 


124  ARMENIA. 


Still  to  the  lips  the  goblet  press, 
Whose  rim  contains  forgetfulness. 

Forgetfulness,  alas  !  'tis  this 

That  mortals  hold  the  height  of  bliss 

In  this  sad  world  of  care  ; 
For  Memory  through  life  retains 
A  catalogue  of  griefs  and  pains, 

But  little  else  is  there. 

Then  to  the  lips  the  goblet  press, 

Whose  rim  contains  forgetfulness. — Hafiz. 


THE    BEAR.  ^25 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Bear. — Ruins  of  a  Genoese  Castle. — Lynx. — Lemming. — Cara 
Guz. — Gerboa. — Wolves. — Wild  Sheep. — A  hunting  Adventure. — 
Camels. — Peculiar  Method  of  Feeding. — Degeneration  of  domestic 
Animals. 

Of  four-footed  beasts,  the  most  illustrious  is  the  bear, 
of  which  there  are  a  good  many  in  the  wooded  sides 
of  the  mountains  in  the  neighborhood  of  Kars.  Near 
the  strange,  unearthly  lake  of  Tortoom,  I  saw  the  fresh 
footprint  of  a  real  Ursa  Major — a  thundering  old  bear 
he  must  have  been.  He  had  only  just  departed,  and 
the  mark  of  one  of  his  paws  was  large  enough  to  hold 
more  than  both  of  mine.  In  another  place  I  came 
upon  the  ruins  of  one  of  the  string  of  Genoese  castles 
which,  in  former  days,  reared  up  their  lordly  towers  at 
distances  of  not  more  than  eight  or  ten  hours  apart  the 
whole  way  from  Trebizond  to  Teflis.  Their  splendid 
ruins  have  been  my  admiration  on  many  an  imposing 
rock,  frowning  over  an  unknown  valley.  Even  the 
names  of  most  of  these  are  lost,  while  we  only  know 
of  the  history  of  their  founders  that  once  upon  a  time 
there  were  such  merchant  princes.  In  the  bottom  of 
a  broken  turret  a  bear  had  taken  lodgings,  but  he  was 
not  at  home  when  I  called.  Others,  not  far  off,  on  an- 
other hill,  had  given  a  small  party,  and  had  been  amus- 
ing themselves  by  rolling  about  a  piece  of  rock  about 
five  feet  in  diameter — a  game  of  roulette,  on  a  large 
scale,  which  showed  their  wondrous  strength.     The 


120  ARMENIA. 


mud  from  their  paws  upon  the  stone  was  wet  when  I 
came  up  to  join  the  party,  but,  perhaps  luckily  for  me, 
they  declined  the  honor  of  my  acquaintance,  and  the 
society  had  broken  up.  Some  sturdy  peasants  of  La- 
zistaun,  hearing  of  my  partiality  for  strange  creatures, 
brought  me  two  young  bears  one  day,  who  lived  in  our 
house  for  some  time.  They  were  very  sensible,  the 
she  bear  keeping  her  brother  in  remarkable  order. 
They  became  very  tame.  They  were,  in  some  re- 
spects, different  from  the  European  bear,  and  ..of  a  light 
cinnamon  color.  I  sent  them  to  England.  They  were 
great  favorites  with  the  sailors  on  board  ship,  and  ar- 
rived safely  at  the  Tower  Stairs,  when  some  white 
paint  being  left  out  for  the  beautification  of  the  vessel, 
the  poor  bears  ate  it  all  up,  and  not  only  died  of  the 
unwholesome  feast,  but  the  poison  was  so  strong  as  to 
bring  the  fur  off  their  skins,  so  that  they  could  not  be 
stuffed  and  immortalized  in  a  glass  case. 

After  the  bear  the  next  animal  is  jfche  lynx^jhe  fur 
of  whose  belly  is  of  the  highest  value  in  Turkey,  while 
that  of  the  back  is  worth  very  much  less.  These  ani- 
mals are  not  rare  in  Armenia,  and  Enveri  Effendi 
prided  himself  on  a  splendid  robe  of  this  valuable  fur, 
which  he  paid  for  by^sening  the  skins  of  the  backs  of 
the  lynxes  at  Constantinople  for  more  than  he  had 
given  for  the  precious  under-fur  at  Erzeroom.  The 
lynx  is  famed  for  the  quickness  of  his  sight,  but  En- 
veri Effendi  had  a  sharper  eye  than  he  in  all  affairs 
relating  to  his  own  benefit. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year,  soon  after  the  women  and 
children,  the  lemmings  come  out,  and  sit  upon  their 
hind  legs,  and  wipe  their  eyes  with  their  fore-paws,  and 


CAR  A   GUZ.  127 


seem  to  wonder  quietly  at  those  who  pass  by,  taking  a 
header,  or  summerset,  down  their  holes  if  you  stop  sud- 
denly to  look  at  these  curious  little  beasts. 

A  soft,  cozy,  fat  little  quadruped,  called  ^araguz 
(black  eyes),  about  the  size  of  a  young  Guinea-pig,  and 
much  of  Hie  same  shape — only  his  color  is  gray,  and 
he  has  a  most  wonderfully  soft  coat — comes  out,  too, 
about  this  time.  He  is  so  fat  that  he  can  not  walk 
very  fast,  and  is  easily  taken,  and  in  his  captivity  pre- 
fers almonds  and  raisins  to  any  other  bill  of  fare  which 
I  was  able  to  put  before  him.  This  little  fellow  eats 
his  breakfast,  luncheon,  dinner,  and  supper  slowly  and 
respectably,  without  testifying  any  alarm  for  mankind. 
I  could  not  make  out  his  scientific  name ;  he  is  prob- 
ably some  kind  of  little  marmotte,  and  he  falls  readily 
into  the  manners  and  habits  of  the  society  in  which 
Providence  has  placed  him. 

After  cara  guz,  the  gerboa  comes  out  of  his  hole,  and 
hops  about  on  his  long  tail  and  hind  legs  ;  a  miniature 
kangaroo,  in  Avhose  acquaintance  I  have  rejoiced  in  the 
burning  deserts  of  Africa  as  well  as  in  the  frozen  re- 
gions of  the  highlands  of  Erzeroom.  In  this  country 
the  number  of  quadrupeds  is  very  limited ;  the  fox  is 
occasionally  seen,  as  well  as  the  gray  beaver  (kondooz), 
badgers,  and  wolves.  At  the  melting  of  the  snow  the 
wolves  come  even  into  the  towns,  and  devour  the  dogs 
with  which  every  town  is  amply  supplied.  There  are 
awful  stories  of  their  carrying  off  the  little,  peeping, 
blear-eyed  children,  who  creep  out  of  their  holes  in  the 
beginning  of  spring,  and  who  are  occasionally  washed 
away  in  the  torrents  of  melted  snow — the  only  wash- 
ing attended  to  hereabouts.     Wolves  are  not  very  un- 


^23  ARMENIA. 


frequently  started  out  of  the  inside  of  one  of  the  numer- 
ous dead  horses,  whose  overworked  bodies  have  been 
frozen  into  the  consistency  of  flint  during  the  winter, 
and  which  form  savory  banquets  for  the  famished 
wolves  when  the  snow  and  ice  recede,  and  display  these 
dainty  morsels  to  their  haggard  eyes. 

The  wild  sheep  frequent  the  inaccessible  rocks  of 
the  lower  mountains,  where  a  scanty  herbage  may  be 
browsed  beneath  the  line  of  perpetual  snow.  No  two 
animals  can  be  more  different,  both  in  appearance  and 
habits,  than  the  wild  and  tame  sheep.  The  wild  sheep 
of  Armenia  (Ovis  gemelii)  is  in  size,  shape,  and  color 
like  the  doe  of  the  fallow-deer,  only  it  has  two  short 
horns  bending  backward,  like  those  of  a  goat.  The 
strength  and  agility  of  this  most  nimble  creature  are 
astonishing ;  they  are  more  difficult  of  approach  than 
the  chamois  of  the  Alps.  I  have  usually  seen  them  in 
pairs,  but  was  never  able  to  get  a  shot.  I  brought 
three  skins  and  several  heads  of  this  rare  animal  to 
Europe,  out  of  which  one  stuffed  specimen  was  made 
up  in  the  British  Museum;  it  is,  I  believe,  the  only 
one  extant.  The  method  employed  to  hunt  this  sheep 
is  to  climb  to  the  highest  summit  of  a  mountain,  and 
then,  cautiously  approaching  the  edges  of  the  cliffs,  to 
peep  down  with  a  telescope  into  the  gorges  and  ravines 
below,  where,  if  you  have  luck,  you  may  see  the  sheep 
capering  about  on  the  ledges  of  the  precipice,  jumping, 
standing  on  a  stone  on  their  hind  legs  to  reach  a  little 
tuft  of  herbage,  and  playing  the  most  curious  antics, 
for  no  perceptible  reason,  unless  it  is  that  they  find 
their  digestion  improved  by  taking  a  considerable  deal 
of  exercise.     In  these  gymnastics  the  hunter  must  par- 


A  HUNTING  ADVENTURE. 


129 


ticipate  to  a  great  extent  in  following  the  tracks  of  the 
jumpingest  creatures  (excepting  fleas)  that  he  can  ever 
have  to  deal  with.  It  requires  much  activity,  and  a 
good  head  for  looking  over  a  height,  to  attempt  to  come 
up  with  them,  and  many  a  sad  accident  has  occurred 
to  the  adventurous  sportsman  in  this  pursuit.  I  my- 
self have  been  in  some  awkward  situations :  once  par- 
ticularly, having  let  myself  down  by  the  roots  of  a  kind 
of  juniper  on  the  ledge  of  a  tremendous  precipice,  I 
found  there  was  no  way  further  down,  and,  what  was 
of  more  consequence,  no  way  up  again,  for  the  roots 
of  the  stunted  tree  were  above  my  reach.  A  hunter — 
a  Laz,  or  a  native  of  Lazistaun  —  was  with  me,  and 
when  we  had  done  watching  the  two  sheep  scamper- 
ing off  out  of  shot  below,  we  looked  at  the  place  we 
were  on,  and  then  in  each  other's  faces  in  blank  dis- 
may. We  were  in  the  same  scrape  as  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  got  into  in  the  Tyrol,  near  ....  only 
there  being  no  angels  about  in  the  mountains  of  La- 
zistaun, we  had  no  expectation  of  being  assisted  by  a 
spirited  or  a  spiritual  goatherd,  as  he  was.  After  a 
good  deal  of  pantomime,  which  would  have  puzzled 
any  bird  who  might  be  wondering  at  our  maneuvers 
— for  we  did  not  understand  each  other's  language— 
we  took  off  our  boots,  all  our  outer  clothes,  and  our 
arms  and  rifles,  and  tied  them  in  a  bundle ;  then  I 
planted  myself  firmly,  with  my  face  to  the  wall  of  the 
cliff,  sticking  my  rifle  into  a  crevice  to  give  me  more 
steadiness,  and  the  hunter  climbed  carefully  up  my 
back  on  to  my  shoulders  till  he  got  hold  of  the  roots  of 
the  tree  ;  the  tree  shook,  and  plenty  of  stones  and  dirt 
fell  upon  my  head,  while  the  hunter  scrambled  into 
F2 


130  ARMENIA. 


the  trunk,  and  he  was  safe.  He  sat  down  a  while  to 
rest,  and  then  hauled  up  the  clothes  and  guns  with  our 
shawls  that  we  had  taken  off  from  round  our  waists ; 
a  gentle  qualm  came  over  me  at  this  moment,  for  fear 
he  should  be  off  with  my,  to  him,  very  valuable  spoils, 
and  leave  me  in  peace  upon  the  shelf.  But  he  was  a 
true  man,  as  a  hunter  generally  is ;  so,  after  a  variety 
of  signs  and  gesticulations  to  each  other  as  to  how  it 
was  to  be  done,  he  lugged  me  up,  first  by  the  shawls, 
and  then  by  hand,  until  I  could  reach  the  roots  of  the 
tree.  Here  there  was  only  room  for  one,  so  he  climb- 
ed higher,  and,  after  some  wonderful  positions,  strug- 
gles, kicks,  and  scrambling,  I  got  back  among  the  roots, 
then  up  the  trunk  of  the  old  gnarled  juniper,  or  what- 
ever it  was,  and  at  last  upon  a  slope,  partaking  much 
of  that  character  which,  in  the  states  of  the  free  and 
independent  slave-dealers  over  the  water,  is  called  slant- 
indicular.  Here  we  both  lay  down.  As  for  me,  I  was 
quite  faint  with  giddiness  and  hard  kicking,  with  noth- 
ing under  me  to  kick  at ;  but  soon  we  picked  up  our 
effects,  put  on  our  boots,  &c,  scrambled,  slid,  and  climb- 
ed about  again  after  some  more  sheep ;  but,  by  reason 
of  their  having  two  pair  of  legs  each,  and  each  pair 
better  adapted  to  present  circumstances  than  our  one 
pair  each,  they  always  got  away,  and  we  came  down 
the  mountain  muttonless  and  hungry  for  that  day,  not 
sorry  to  find  a  famous  good  supper  in  the  tent,  in  our 
encampment  by  the  trout  stream,  in  the  Valley  of 
Tortoom. 

One  more  quadruped  nearly  concludes  the  short  cat- 
alogue of  the  mammalia  of  Erzeroom — the  caprioorn. 
many  specimens  of  whose  enormous  horns  are  nailed 


DEGENERATION    OF    ANIMALS.  J31 

up  over  the  doors  of  houses  in  the  city ;  but  I  never 
saw  this  last  animal  at  Erzeroom,  alive  or  dead. 

Innumerable  camels  accompany  the  caravans  from 
hence  to  Persia,  looking  very  much  out  of  place  in  the 
deep  snow.  They  are  the  Arabian  camel  with  one 
hump,  and  I  had  no  notion  that  my  old  acquaintance 
of  Arabia  could  bear  the  tremendous  cold  of  Erzeroom. 
Great  quantities  of  corn  and  meal  are  brought  here 
from  the  more  prolific  countries  of  the  neighborhood. 
This  is  the  staple  merchandise  of  the  city,  which  is  the 
only  place  on  the  road  between  Persia  and  Turkey 
where  caravans  can  recruit  their  thousands  of  jaded 
horses,  and  procure  provisions  for  their  journey.  In 
this  consists  the  political  importance  of  an  otherwise 
worthless  and  infertile  spot.  The  number  of  camels, 
horses,  mules,  and  beasts  of  burden  assembled  some- 
times at  Erzeroom  is  immense,  and  they  have  here  a 
peculiar  method  of  feeding  the  camels  by  opening  their 
mouths  with  the  left  hand,  and  with  the  other  shoving 
down  the  poor  beast's  throat  a  ball  of  dough  about  the 
size  of  a  cricket  ball. 

One  peculiarity  of  the  domestic  animals  in  this  fear- 
ful climate  is,  that  they  are  dwarfed  and  dwindled  in 
size  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  A  bull  used  to  run 
about  the  lower  regions  of  my  house,  which  was  bare- 
ly eighteen  inches  high ;  the  sheep  were  so  small  that 
grown  up  mutton  looked  like  lamb.  The  same  occur- 
red with  fruit ;  none  at  all  grew  at  Erzeroom,  but  we 
had  from  villages  some  miles  off,  on  the  edges  of  the 
plain,  plums  the  size  of  damsons,  apricots  the  size  of 
walnuts,  and  other  fruits  in  proportion. 


232  ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Birds. — Great  Variety  and  vast  Numbers  of  Birds. — Flocks  of  Geese. 
— Employment  for  the  Sportsman.  —  The  Captive  Crane. — Wild 
and  tame  Geese. — The  pious  and  profane  Ancestors. — List  of  Birds 
found  at  Erzeroom. 

I  now  enter  upon  a  subject  to  which  I  fear  I  have 
neither  time  nor  power  to  do  justice.  The  number  of 
various  kinds  of-birds  -which  breed  on  the  great  plain 
of  Erzeroom  is  so  prodigious  as  to  be  almost  incredible 
to  those  who  have  not  seen  them,  as  I  often  have,  cov- 
ering the  earth  for  miles  and  miles  so  completely  that 
the  color  of  the  ground  could  not  be  seen ;  particularly 
at  one  period,  when  the  whole  country  had  a  rosy  ap- 
pearance, from  the  countless  flocks  of  a  sort  of  red 
goose,  which  I  take  to  be  the  ruddy  sheldrake — a 
splendid  bird,  though  not  good  to  eat.  It  is  about  the 
size  of  a  small  goose  or  a  Muscovy  duck,  almost  en- 
tirely clothed  in  various  shades  of  red.  Troops  of  the 
two  varieties  of  the  wild  gray  goose  form  whitish  spots 
in  the  animated  landscape,  their  wild  cries  and  noises 
sounding  in  every  direction.  So  closely  covered  was 
the  plain  with  this  prodigious  multitude  of  every  kind 
of  wild  fowl,  that  I  have  galloped  among  them  for  some 
distance,  the  birds  getting  up  about  one  hundred  yards 
in  a  circle  round  my  horse,  and  settling  again  behind 
me  with  loud  cries,  while  the  air  rustled  with  the  beat- 
ing of  innumerable  wings  of  those  birds  which  had 
been  disturbed  by  my  approach.  The  sportsman  may 
imagine  what  shooting  there  is  at  Erzeroom,  for  when 


GREAT    VARIETY   OF   BIRDS.  ^33 

one  genus  has  reared  its  young  and  flown  away  to  far 
and  distant  lands,  another  takes  its  place.  Quails  are 
at  one  time  almost  as  thick  as  flies ;  and  numerous  vari- 
eties of  small  birds,  among  which  the  horned  lark  and 
the  red- winged  finch  flew  in  clouds.  That  beautiful 
variety,  the  rosy  starling,  has  been  often  shot,  as  well 
as  the  merops,  and  so  many  other  little  fowls  of  varied 
plumage,  that  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  accom- 
panying list,  for  it  would  fill  a  book  to  give  even  a 
slight  description  of  them  all.  On  the  banks  of  the 
river  I  used  to  shoot  all  sorts  of  waders,  particularly 
spoonbills,  and  that  most  delicate  of  birds,  the  egret 
or  white  heron,  famous  for  its  plumes.  I  must  own  to 
being  a  bad  shot,  having  been  more  accustomed  to  the 
rifle,  but  these  white  herons  afforded  me  great  prac- 
tice ;  as  they  flapped  along,  I  shot  numbers  of  them,  as 
well  as  many  and  many  a  quaint  fellow  with  long  legs, 
whom  I  brought  home  merely  to  make  out  who  he 
was,  and  to  write  down  his  name.  Later  in  the  year 
I  risked^  my  neck  by  riding  as  hard  as  I  could  tear 
over  the  rocky,  or  rather  stony,  plains  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountains  after  the  great  bustard.  I  have  more  than 
once  knocked  some  of  the  feathers  out  of  these  glori- 
ous huge  birds,  as  they  ran  at  a  terrible  pace,  half  fly- 
ing and  scrambling  before  my  straining  horse,  but  I 
never  succeeded  in  killing  one,  though  I  have  constant- 
ly partaken  of  those  which  had  fallen  before  more  pa- 
tient gunners,  who  stalk  them  as  you  would  a  deer, 
and  knock  them  over  with  a  rifle  or  swan-shot  from 
behind  a  stone  or  bank. 

I  had  more  success  with  the  great  cinereous  crane, 
which  runs  much  faster  than  a  horse.     I  shot  one  at 


134  ARMENIA. 


full  gallop  with  a  rifle,  in  a  place  overgrown  with  reeds. 
This  was  a  mighty  triumph,  for,  though  my  game  was 
about  five  feet  high,  he  was  so  very  long  in  the  legs 
and  neck,  that  the  body  offered  but  a  small  mark  to 
be  brought  down  under  such  circumstances,  and  the 
pace  he  was  going  at  the  time,  and  I  after  him,  was, 
as  they  say,  "  a  caution."  This  is  a  bird  with  whom  it 
is  requisite  to  be  wary :  if  he  is  down,  and  not  killed 
outright,  like  the  heron  and  the  stork  he  makes  a  dart 
with  his  sharp,  long  bill  at  the  eyes  of  his  enemy,  and 
its  strength  is  such  that  it  might  easily,  I  should  think, 
penetrate  the  brain ;  at  any  rate,  the  eye  would  be 
picked  out  at  once,  and  that  would  suffice  for  that 
time. 

A  man  brought  in  a  crane  which  he  had  winged, 
and  we  turned  him  out  into  the  yard  with  the  poul- 
try, where  he  stalked  up  and  down  with  a  proud,  in- 
dignant air.  He  soon  became,  pretty  quiet,  and  ate 
his  corn  with  the  rest,  while  he  had  a  deep  bucket  of 
water  for  his  own  use,  into  which  he  used  to  poke  his 
head  continually.  One  day  a  stupid,  heavy  servant 
went  into  the  yard,  and,  not  knowing  that  the  bucket 
was  placed  there  for  the  stork,  he  took  it  up  to  carry 
it  away,  when  the  bird  flew  at  him  and  pecked  at  his 
face,  but,  missing  his  eye,  seized  him  tightly  by  the 
nose,  and  there  he  held  him  for  a  good  while.  The 
poor  man  halloed  loud  enough,  but  those  who  came  to 
his  assistance  could  not  help  him  at  first  for  laughing ; 
and  though  he  kept  beating  at  the  crane  with  the 
bucket,  which  he  held  in  his  hand,  his  long  neck  en- 
abled him  to  keep  so  far  off  that  he  escaped  all  the 
frantic  attempts  of  his  prisoner  to  reach  him.     The 


THE    LESSER    BUSTARD.  ^35 

man^s_nose_was  swelled  and  very  sore  for  some  time, 
and  he  never  got  over  the  ridicule  which  attached  to 
him  for  his  perilous  adventure  with  the  crane.  It  was 
touching  to  watch  this  crane :  when  the  time  for  its 
emigration  arrived,  a  flock  of  its  magnificent  compan- 
ions every  day  used  to  fly  high  up  in  the  air,  in  a 
wheeling  circle,  above  its  head.  This  circle  of  flying 
birds  has  a  very  striking  effect.  The  cranes  above 
called  to  their  friend  to  join  them  for  their  distant 
journey  to  a  happier  climate,  and  the  poor  helpless 
crane  below,  stretching  its  long  neck  up  toward  the 
sky,  answered  the  appeal  in  a  singularly  mournful 
cry. 

Various  kinds  of^partridge  exist,  and  the  lesser,  bus- 
tard, called,  in  Turkish,  Mesmeldek,  is  an  excellent 
bird  for  the  table.  They  have  a  curious  method  of 
catching  the  mesmeldek  in  some  of  the  steppes  in 
Southern  Russia.  At  the  commencement  of  winter, 
parties  of  horsemen  gallop  out  upon  the  plains  before 
sunrise,  at  which  hour  the  wings  of  these  birds  are 
frozen  to  their  sides,  and,  the  hunters  stretching  out 
their  horses  in  a  line,  the  birds  are  driven  by  them  into 
the  villages,  and  secured,  before  the  warmth  of  the  sun 
releases  their  wings  and  restores  their  powers  of  flight. 
Great  flocks  of  the  lesser  bustard  have  been  driven  in 
this  manner  occasionally  into  Odessa.  Hawks  and 
stately  falcons  hover  over  head,  and  prey  upon  their 
defenseless  brethren  at  their  ease. 

Storks  build  upon  the  chimneys;  and  among  the 
sticks  of  which  their  huge  nest  is  formed,  the  sparrows 
make  their  nests,  stealing,  when  they  can,  any  food, 
which  the  old  birds  bring  for  their  young. 


136  ARMENIA. 


Here,  as  in  all  other  parts  of  the  world,  this  imperti- 
nent race  of  little  birds  dispute  possession  of  the  house 
with  mice  and  other  intruders ;  but  at  Erzeroom  they 
are  hardly  put  to  it  sometimes  for  want  of  twigs  to 
perch  upon,  and  they  sit  usually,  instead,  upon  the  iron 
bars  of  the  windows  in  the  town.  Here  I  have  often 
watched  them  chirping  in  the  cold,  as  they  sat  by  the 
dozen  on  the  bars  of  my  window,  dressing  their  feath~ 
ers,  and  jabbering  to  each  other,  like  true  Koordish 
sparrows,  about  the  corn  that  they  stole  from  my 
chickens  yesterday,  and  how,  with  case-hardened  con- 
sciences, they  intend  to  steal  as  much  more  as  they 
can  get  to-day. 

This  is  a  subject  on  which  I  could  dilate  to  any 
length,  but  at  present  I  must  conclude  with  the  fol- 
lowing list  of  the  various  tribes  of  birds  who,  in  thou- 
sands and  millions,  would  reward  the  toil  of  the  sports- 
man and  the  naturalist  on  the  plains  and  mountains 
of  the  high  lands  of  Armenia ;  merely  adding  to  this 
brief  notice  of  the  birds  of  this  country  the  following 
veracious  anecdote,  as  perhaps  hitherto  naturalists  may 
not  all  of  them  be  aware  of  the  origin  of  the  separation 
of  the  wild  and  tame  goose : 

In  former  days,  two  geese  agreed  to  take  a  long 
journey  together :  the  evening  before  they  werelxTset" 
out,  one  said  to  the  other,  "Mind  you  are  ready,  my 
friend,  for,  Inshallah,  I  will  set  out  to-morrow  morn- 
ing !"  "  And  so  will  I,"  replied  he,  "  whether  it  pleases 
Grod  or  not !"  The  sun  rose  the  next  day,  and  the 
pious  goose,  having  ate  his  breakfast,  and  quenched 
his  thirst  in  the  waters  of  the  stream,  rose  lightly  on 
the  wing,  and  soared  away  to  a  distant  land.     The 


LIST   OF   BIRDS.  137 

impious  bird  also  prepared  to  follow  him;  but,  after 
hopping  and  fluttering  for  a  long  while,  he  found  him- 
self totally  unable  to  rise  from  the  ground ;  and  his 
evolutions  having  been  observed  by  a  fowler  who  hap- 
pened to  be  passing  that  way,  he  was  presently  caught, 
and  reduced  to  servitude,  in  which  his  race  have  ever 
since  continued,  while  the  descendants  of  the  religious 
goose  still  enjoy  that  freedom  in  which  they  were  orig- 
inally created. 

LIST  OF  BIRDS  FOUND  AT  ERZEROOM. 
Raptores  (Birds  of  Prey). 

Vultur  fulvus Fulvous  vulture. 

Aquila  fulvus Fulvous  eagle. 

Aquila Eagle. 

Accipiter  fringillarius ,  Sparrow-hawk. 

Falco  tinnunculus Kestril. 

"      osalon Hobby. 

"      subbuteo Merlin. 

"      rufipes Orange-legged  hobby. 

"      peregrinus Peregrine  falcon. 

"      peregrinus Falcon. 

Milvus  ater Common  kite. 

Buteo  ater  (1) Common  buzzard  (1). 

"      ater Marsh  buzzard. 

Circus  pallidus White  hen  harrier. 

"       rufus Marsh  hen  harrier. 

Noctua  Indica Small  Indian  owl. 

Strix  Indica Another  owl. 

Insepores  (or  Perchers). 
Deutirostres. 

Lanius  excubitor Great  strike  (or  butcher-bird). 

"       collurio Red-backed  strike. 

Collurio  minor Small  strike. 

Musicapa  grisola Spotted  fly-catcher. 

"         luctuosa Pied  fly-catcher. 


138  ARMENIA. 


Turdus  merula Blackbird. 

"       torquatus   Ring-ouzel. 

"       pilaris Fieldfare. 

'*       musicus Song-thrush. 

Petrocinela  saxatilis Rock-thrush 

Cinclus  aquaticus Water-ouzel  (or  dipper). 

Oriolus  galbula Golden  oriole. 

Motacilla  alba White  wagtail. 

"         flava Yellow  wagtail. 

Saxicola  rubicola Stonechat. 

"        rubetra Whinchat. 

"         aenanthe Wheatear. 

Sylvia  trochilus Willow  wren. 

"       hippolais Willow  wren. 

Salicaria  phragmitis Sedge-warbler. 

cetti  (?) Sedge- warbler  (1). 

Curruca  cineria Whitethroat. 

"        atricapilla Blackcap. 

Phoenicura  ruticilla Redstart. 

"  tilkys  . Black  redstart. 

"  succica Bluebreast. 

Erythaca  rubecula Redbreast. 

Troglodytes  Europseus Wren. 

Rudytes  melanocephala Wren. 

Anthus  arboreus Tree-pipit. 

"       pratensis Pipit-lark. 

"       rufescens Pipit-pipit. 

Fissirostres. 

Hirundo  riparia Saced  martin. 

"        rustica Swallow. 

Cypselus  murarius Swift. 

Caprimulgus  Europseus Goat-sucker. 

Conirostrcs. 

Alanda  arvensis Skylark. 

"       arborea Woodlark. 

"       calandra Calandre. 

"       brachydactila Little  lark. 


LIST    OF    BIRDS.  139 


Alanda  penicillata Horned  lark. 

"       rupestris Rock  lark. 

"       rupestris  (?) (An  Albino  variety). 

"       rupestris Albino  lark. 

Parus  major Great  titmouse. 

"      cceruleus Blue  titmouse. 

Emberiza  citrinella Yellow-hammer. 

"         hortulana Ortolan. 

"         miliaria Common  bunting. 

"         cia Meadow  bunting. 

Fringilla  coelebs Chaffinch. 

"         montefrengilla Mountain-finch  (or  brambling). 

M         nivalis  (!) Snow-finch  (!). 

"         sanguinea Bloody-finch. 

Pyrgita  domestica House-sparrow. 

"       petronea Stone-sparrow. 

Carduelis  communis Goldfinch. 

Pyrrhula  communis  (?) (A  variety  of  the  bullfinch). 

Linaria  montuim Mountain  linnet  (or  twite). 

"       cannabina Greater  redpole. 

Coccothraustes  chloris Greenfinch. 

"  vulgaris Hawfinch. 

Loxia  curvirostra Crossbill. 

Sturnus  vulgaris Common  starling. 

Pastor  roseus Rosy-pastor. 

Corvus  modedula Jackdaw. 

"       frugeleus Rook. 

"       comix Hooded  or  Royston  crow. 

Pica  candata Magpie. 

Garrulus  melanocephalus .  .  .  .  Black-headed  jay. 
Coracias  garrula Roller. 

Tenuirostres. 

Upupa  epops Hoopoe. 

Merops  apiaster Bee-eater. 

Alcedo  ispida Kingfisher. 

SCANSORES    (OR    CLIMBERS). 

Yuux  torquilla Wryneck. 


140  ARMENIA. 


Cuculus  canorus Cuckoo. 

Cuculus  (?) Cuckoo. 

Rasores  (Gallinaceous  Birds). 

Otis  tarda Great  bustard. 

"    tetrax Small  bustard. 

Pterocles  arenarius Sand-grouse. 

Perdix  saxatilis Red  or  Greek  partridge. 

"      cineria Gray  or  English  partridge. 

Coternix  vulgaris Quail. 

Columba  aenos Stock-dove. 

"        turtur  (?) Turtle-dove  (?). 

Grall^e  (or  Waders). 

Charadrius  morinelles Dotterel. 

"  minor Small  ring-plover. 

"  minor Large  ring-plover. 

^Edienenuus  crepitans Stone-curlew. 

"  crepitans Stone-curlew. 

Vanellus  cristatus Crested  lapwing. 

"        keptuschka Crested  lapwing. 

"        keptuschka Crested  lapwing. 

Grus  cineria Gray  crane. 

Ardea  alba White  heron. 

"      cineria Gray  heron  (two   sorts  very 

"      cineria Night  heron.  [large). 

"      cineria Black  heron. 

"      cineria Black  and  gray  heron. 

Botaurus  stellaris Bittern. 

Nycticorax  Europseus Night  heron. 

Ciconia  alba White  stork. 

Platolea  leucorodia White  spoonbill. 

Scolopax  rusticola Woodcock. 

"        major Double  snipe. 

Gallinago  media Common  snipe. 

"         minima Jack-snipe. 

Ibis  falcinellus Marone  ibis. 

"    falcinellus  (?) Marone  ibis. 

Limosa  melanolensa 


LIST  OF  BIRDS.  \/±\ 

Tringa  subaiquata Curlew  tringa. 

"       minuta Small  tringa. 

"       variabilis  Changeable  tringa. 

"       pugnax Ruff  and  reve. 

"       pugnax RufF  and  tringa. 

Totanus  hypolencos Common  sandpiper. 

"        ochropus Green  sandpiper. 

"        glotis Green  shankpiper. 

"        calidris ....". Red  shankpiper. 

Himantopus  melanopterus  .  . .  Stilts. 

Rallus  crec Corn-crake. 

"       crec Corn-rail. 

"       crec Corn-rail. 

Zapornia  pusilla Corn-rail. 

Fulica  atra Coot. 

Gallinula  chloropus Water-hen. 

Glareola  limbata Pratin  cole. 

"        torquata Austrian  cole. 

Palmipedes  (Web-footed  Birds). 

Podiceps  cristatus Crested  grebe. 

"         rubricollis Red-necked  grebe. 

"         auritus Eared  grebe. 

Larus  ridibundus Laughing  gull. 

"      argentatus  (?) Herring  gull  (I). 

Sterna  hirundo Common  tern. 

"      leucoptera Common  tern. 

"       nigra Black  tern. 

Pelicanus  onocrotalus Pelican. 

Carbo  cormoranus Cormorant. 

Anas  boschas Wild  duck. 

"      boschas Wild  duck. 

Cygnus  ferus  . ". Wild  swan. 

Anser  ferus Gray-leg  goose. 

"      albifrons White-fronted  goose. 

Fuligula  rufina Red-headed  pochard. 

"        rufina Common  pochard. 

"        cristata Tufted  duck. 

Querquedula  cinerea Summer  teal. 


142  ARMENIA. 

Querquedula  crecca Common  teal. 

Dafila  caudacuta Pintail  duck. 

Chaulelosmus  strepera Gadwall. 

Rynchapsis  clypeata Black-headed  shoveler. 

Tadorna  rutila Ruddy  sheldrake. 

"        vulpanser Common  sheldrake. 

"    Mergus  albellus Smew.  ♦ 

For  this  list  of  birds  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness 
of  my  friend  Mr.  Calvert,  of  Erzeroom,  to  whom  I  take 
this  opportunity  of  expressing  my  best  thanks  for  a 
communication  so  interesting  to  lovers  of  natural  his- 
torv. 


RUINED   TOWEB    IN    THE    CASTLE    OF   TORTOOM,   BUILT    BY   THE    GENOESE,   Oil 
PERHAPS   BY   THE   KNIGHTS   TEMPLARS. 


excursions.  145 


CHAPTER  XL 

Excursion  to  the  Lake  of  Tortoom. — Romantic  Bridge. — Gloomy 
Effect  of  the  Lake. — Singular  Boat. — "  Evaporation"  of  a  Pistol. — 
Kiamili  Pasha. — Extraordinary  Marksman. — Alarming  Illness  of  the 
Author. — An  Earthquake. — Lives  lost  through  intense  Cold. — The 
Author  recovers. 

Between  the  days  of  arrival  and  departure  of  the 
tatars,  or  couriers,  to  Constantinople,  and  the  struggles 
to  keep  the  peace  and  explain  the  simplest  transaction 
with  our  colleagues,  we  found  time  for  various  expedi- 
tions to  the  neighboring  countries  on  all  sides.  The 
most  remarkable  of  these  was  that  to  the  deep,  un- 
fathomable lake  of  Tortoom,  about  three  days'  journey 
off.  Our  main  object  in  going  there  was  to  fish,  an 
we  encamped  for  that  purpose  on  the  upper  streams  of 
the  "Rnjmrm  "R.ivp.r  gjid  other  places.^  In  the  valley  of 
the  castle  of  Tortoom  the  troutajiounded,  and  were 
of  that  unsophisticated  nature  that,  fishing  one  hour 
in  the  dawn  and  one  hour  before  sunset  with  two  fly- 
rods,  we  caught  every  day  enough  to  feed  our  camp, 
and  to  send  a  horse-load  (no  small  quantity)  in  the 
evening  to  our  friends  at  Erzeroom.  This  was  one 
day's  march,  and  the  horses,  traveling^aJhnghi^rougnT 
the  fish,  though  in  the  hot  weather,  in  great  perfection 
to  the  city  in  the  cool  of  the  morning.  "We  were  not 
aware,  till  it  was  too  late,  of  the  deadly  nature  of  the 
malaria  in  these  rocky  valleys,  where  the  precipice 
shot  up  clear  and  straight  to  the  height,  sometimes,  we 
G 


|46  ARMENIA. 


used  to  judge,  of  above  a  thousand  feet.  On  our  way 
through  one  of  these  romantic  dells,  we  all  rode,  bag 
and  baggage,  over  a  bridge,  to  be  compared  only  to  the 
bridge  of  Al  Serat,  over  which  the  souls  of  the  judged 
.  wnTHave  to  pass  from  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  over 
the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  till  they  reach  the  other 
world,  which  bridge  is  as  narrow  as  the  edge  of  the 
cimeter  of  Mohammed.  The  fright  I  was  in  is  not 
to  be  described  when  I  saw  the  first  horseman,  who 
was  at  the  time  filling  his  pipe,  walk  his  horse  uncon- 
cernedly over  this  ^bridge,  which  was  composed  of  two 
pine-trees  thrown  over  a  torrent  which  roared  and 
tumbled  thirty  feet  below.  However,  being  afraid  to 
show  I  was  afraid,  I  rode  over  too,  and  certainly  thought 
myself  a  bold  fellow  when  I  got  safe  to  the  other  side. 
To  ride  safely  over  such  a  bridge,  a  horse  ought  to  be 
brought  up  to  practice  on  a  tight-rope.  I  would  not 
attempt  to  walk  over  such  a  place  nowadays  in  En- 
gland. 

"We  passed  a  village  in  one  lovely  valley,  in  a  grove 
of  peach-trees,  where  we  found  that  every  soul,  or 
rather  every  body,  was  dead ;  only  one  man  survived 
the  fever  which  had  killed  the  rest. 

Of  all  the  strange  and -gloomy  scenes  that  I  have 
witnessed,  none  have  left  a  deeper  impression  on  my 
mind  than  that  of  the  black,  unfathomable  lake  of 
Tortoom.  Mountains  of  dark  rock  fall  sheer  down  in 
awful  precipices  right  into  these  deep,  still  waters  on 
each  side.  No  fish  are  to  be  found  in  this  Dead  Sea, 
though  perhaps  they  may  retreat  there  in  the  winter 
from  the  mountain  rills.  If  the  lake  was  a  strange 
place,  the  boat  which  we  discovered  on  the  shore  was 


,-"«» 


Boat  on  the  Lake  of  Tortoom. 


EXTRAORDINARY    SHOOTING.  ^49 

in  character  with  the  scene.  It  was  the  only  vessel 
on  its  waters,  and  its  builder  probably  jieverjstudied 
naval  architecture  in  the  dock-yards  of  the  maritime 
powers.  It  was  formed  out  of  the  trunks  of  two  trees ; 
but  as  no  description  would  so  well  convey  a  notion 
of  its  form,  I  refer  the  curious  to  the  accompanying 
sketch.  The  standing  figure  in  it  represents  a  valor- 
ous kawass,  who  fired  his  pistol  in  the  air  for  the  sake 
of  the  echo,  and,  on  the  smoke  clearing  off,  he  found 
that  the  entire  pistol  had  evaporated  too ;  nothing  visi- 
ble remained  in  his  hand ;  it  had  burst  all  to  pieces. 
But,  fortunately,  neither  he  nor  any  of  the  party  were 
hurt  by  the  fragments,  which  fell  into  the  waters  of  the 
dark  and  silent  lake. 

October  lr  1843.  This  day  I  was  riding  on  the 
road  toward  Bayazeed  and  Persia.  Hearing  some 
shots,  I  turned  toward  the  hills  lying  between  the  town 
of  Erzeroom  and  the  mountains,  and  there  I  saw  two 
or  three  tents  pitched,  and  a  number  of  officers,  serv- 
ants, and  people  attending  on  Kiamili  Pagha,  who  was 
shooting  at  a  mark  with  a  pistol. 

He  is  the  most  wonderful  shot  I  ever  heard  of :  he 
always  fired  at  a  distance  of  about  250  paces,  or  yards. 
Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  step  this  distance 
in  a  field  or  park  will  see  how  far  it  is  to  shoot  with  a 
rifle,  and  how  entirely  out  of  all  usual  calculations  in 
pistol  practice.  I  went  into  the  Pasha's  tent.  He  re- 
ceived me,  as  usual,  with  great  kindness,  and,  after 
pipes-arid  coffee,  I  begged  him  to  go  on  with  his  shoot- 
ing. The  way  he  set  about  it  was  this  :  he  sat  on  one 
of  the  low,  square  rush-bottomed  stools  which  are  al- 
ways found  in  Turkish  coffee-houses,  but  which  must 


150  ARMENIA. 


have  been  brought  from  Constantinople  probably  by 
the  Pasha,  as  those  kind  of  stools  are  not  usually  met 
with  in  Erzeroom.  He  did  not  rest  his  elbow  on  his 
knee,  but  pressed  it  steadily  against  his  side,  took  a 
deliberate  but  not  very  slow  aim,  and  sent  the  ball 
through  a  brown  pottery  vase  filled  with  water,  about 
fifteen  inches  high,  which  stood  on  the  other  side  of  a 
valley,  on  a  level  with  the  tent,  and  full  250  yards  off. 
I  think  the  Pasha  broke  two  while  I  sat  with  him,  and 
made  a  hole  which  let  the  water  out  of  another.  His 
pistols  were  a  pair  of  very  slightly  rifled  dueling-pis- 
tols, about  nine  inches  in  the  barrel,  made  by  Egg, 
Great  George  Street,  London.  I  was  so  much  aston- 
ished at  the  Pasha's  shooting,  that  I  asked  him  to  give 
me  one  of  the  pieces  of  the  vase,  which  I  took  home 
with  me,  and  talked  to  my  friends  about  it.  I  felt 
perfectly  well  when  we  went  to  dinner,  when  sudden- 
ly it  appeared  to  me  that  what  I  was  eating  was  burn- 
ing hot,  and  had  a  strange,  odd  taste.  I  believe  I  got 
up  and  staggered  across  the  room,  but  here  my  senses 
failed  me,  and  I  remained  insensible  for  twenty-seven 
days.  An  attack  of  brain  fever  had  come  upon  me 
like  a  blow,  as  sudden  and  overwhelming  as  a  flash  of 
lightning. 

On  the  27th  of  October  I  awoke  in  the  morning, 
but,  as  I  suppose,  went  to  sleep  for  a  while ;  in  the 
afternoon  I  fairly  came  to  my  senses,  and  saw  my 
servant  sitting  on  the  scarlet-cloth  divan  under  the 
window  looking  at  me.  I  felt  something  strange,  and 
still,  and  gloomy  in  the  air,  and  was  rather  bewildered 
with  the  sensation.  This  was  soon  to  be  accounted 
for :  the  servant,  seeing  that  I  was  alive,  came  forward 


AN    EARTHQUAKE.  |51 

toward  the  bed,  while  a  low  rumbling  noise  made  it- 
self heard.  This  noise  became  louder  ;  flakes  of  plas- 
ter fell  from  the  ceiling ;  the  room  trembled,  and  was 
filled  with  a  fine  dust,  with  which  I  was  nearly  choked. 
My  man  exclaimed,  "  The  earth  moves — are  you  not 
afraid  ?"  As  he  spoke,  the  noise  which  we  had  heard 
increased,  and  an  immense  beam,  made  of  the  trunk 
of  a  whole  tree,  which  was  immediately  above  my  bed, 
split  with  a  report  like  a  cannon.  The  earthquake 
shook  the  house  terribly ;  it  creaked  and  trembled  like 
a  ship  in  a  heavy  gale  of  wind ;  the  noise  increased  to 
a  roar,  not  like  thunder,  but  howling  and  bellowing, 
with  a  low  rumbling  sound,  while  the  air  was  as  still 
as  if  Nature  was  paralyzed  with  dread  ;  every  now  and 
then  a  tremendous  crash  gave  notice  of  a  falling  house. 
The  one  opposite  our  house,  belonging  to  a  poor  widow, 
was  entirely  destroyed  ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  a  most 
fearful  uproar,  the  two  rooms,  one  on  each  side  of  my 
bed -room,  fell  in,  while  the  air  was  darkened  altogeth- 
er, as  in  an  eclipse,  with  clouds  of  dust.  So  great  was 
the  noise  of  the  earthquake  all  around,  that  neither  my 
attendant  nor  I  distinguished  the  particular  crash  when 
the  two  rooms  adjoining  us  fell  in.  Some  of  the  min- 
arets, and  many  of  the  houses  of  the  city,  were  demol- 
ished ;  parts  of  the  ancient  castellated  walls  fell  down. 
The  top  of  one  of  the  two  beautiful  minarets  of  the  old 
medresse,  the  glory  of  Erzeroom,  called  usually  Eki 
Chifteh,  disappeared.  Those  who  were  out,  and  able 
to  witness  the  devastation,  and  to  hear  the  awful  roar- 
ing noise,  said  they  had  never  seen  or  heard  any  thing 
more  tremendous  than  the  scene  before  their  eyes.  It 
is  difficult  to  express  in  words  the  strange,  awful  sen- 


152  ARMENIA. 


sation  produced  by  the  seeming  impossible  contradic- 
tion of  a  dead  stillness  in  the  midst  of  the  crash  of  fall- 
ing buildings,  the  sullen,  low  bellowing,  which  perhaps 
sounded  from  beneath  the  ground,  and  the  tremendous 
uproar  that  arose  on  all  sides  during  the  earthquake. 
I  have  not  met  with  an  account  of  this  strange  phe- 
nomenon in  the  descriptions  of  other  earthquakes,  and 
do  not  know  whether  it  is  a  usual  accompaniment  to 
these  terrible  convulsions  of  nature. 

The  earthquake  accomplished  its  mission:  in  the 
midst  of  terror  and  destruction,  it  restored  one  poor 
creature  to  life.  I  regained  my  senses  and  my  facul- 
ties on  the  27th,  as  suddenly  as  I  had  lost  them  on  the 
1st  day  of  this  month.  God  give  me  grace  to  make  a 
good  use  of  the  life  which  was  restored  to  me  under 
such  awful  circumstances ! 

On  that  day  the  doctor,  who  had  some  difficulty  in 
getting  to  my  room  through  the  ruins  of  the  ante-room, 
took  the  ice  off  my  head,  and  in  a  few  days  I  recover- 
ed sufficient  strength  to  move  my  limbs,  which  I  could 
not  do  at  first. 

As  soon  as  it  appeared  that  there  was  any  probabil- 
ity of  my  recovery,  my  kind  friends  agreed  that  the 
best  chance  of  regaining  my  health  lay  in  removing, 
as  soon  as  I  could  bear  the  journey,  to  a  better  climate. 
During  great  part  of  the  year,  and  naturally  in  the  win- 
ter, the  cold  was  so  severe  that  any  one  standing  still 
for  even  a  very  short  time  was  frozen  to  death.  Dead 
frozen  bodies  were  frequently  brought  into  the  city; 
and  it  is  common  in  the  summer,  on  the  melting  of 
the  snow,  to  find  numerous  corpses  of  men,  and  bodies 
of  horses,  who  had  perished  in  the  preceding  winter. 


LOSS    OF    LIFE    THROUGH    COLD.         ^53 

So  usual  an  event  is  this,  that  there  is  a  custom,  or 
law,  in  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  that  every  summer 
the  villagers  go  out  to  the  more  dangerous  passes,  and 
bury  the  dead  whom  they  are  sure  to  find.  They  have 
a  legal  right  to  their  clothes,  arms,  and  the  accouter- 
ments  of  the  horses,  on  condition  of  forwarding  all  bales 
of  merchandise,  letters,  and  parcels  to  the  places  to 
which  they  are  directed. 

During  the  whole  month  of  December  the  Pasha  had 
caused  four  mules  to  be  exercised  every  day  with  a 
takterawan,  or  litter,  which  he  provided  for  my  con- 
veyance to  Trebizond.  Two  mules,  led  by  one  man, 
carried  the  Utter ;  the  other  two  followed  tamely,  led 
by  another  man,  close  behind,  to  be  ready  to  take  the 
places  of  the  others  if  they  were  tired  or  disabled. 
From  morning  to  night,  the  men  and  the  mules,  and 
the  takterawan,  stumped  along  through  the  snow,  till 
they  dared  to  face  the  storm  and  the  immense  cold, 
and  could  climb  up  and  down  the  icy  rocks  like  goats. 
As  soon  as  I  was  able,  I  was  sent  out  in  the  litter  to  try 
how  I  could  bear  it,  and  to  settle  various  contrivances 
for  keeping  out  the  cold,  and  enabling  me  to  bear  the 
motion  of  the  mules. 

One  day  Colonel  "Williams  rode  out  on  the  Persian 
road  to  see  whether  it  was  passable  for  Dr.  Wolf,  who 
was  then  staying  at  Erzeroom,  and  who  wished  to 
continue  his  journey  to  Bokhara,  when  he  met  a  num- 
ber of  horses,  each  laden  with  two  frozen  bodies  of  Per- 
sian travelers,  one  tied  on  each  side  of  the  pack-horse. 
An  unfortunate  Piedmontese  doctor  had  been  lost  in  a 
snow-storm  a  short  time  before,  and  his  body  was 
found  afterward  near  a  small  monastery,  three  or  four 
G2 


154  ARMENIA. 


miles  from  Erzeroom,  where  he  had  wandered,  bewil- 
dered with  the  falling  snow ;  and  a  whole  party,  with 
one  or  two  ox-carts,  who  left  a  village  in  the  morning 
on  their  way  to  another  a  short  distance  off,  never  ar- 
rived there ;  they  were  found  huddled  together,  oxen, 
horses,  men,  and  women,  in  a  snow-drift,  dead,  and 
frozen  hard  and  stiff,  some  weeks  afterward.  The  cold 
was  so  tremendous  at  this  time  that  the  mountains 
were  impassable,  and  no  one  was  able  to  move  beyond 
a  short  distance  from  the  town. 


START    FOR    TREBIZOND.  15$ 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Start  for  Trebizond. — Personal  Appearance  of  the  Author. — Mountain 
Pass. — Reception  at  Beyboort. — Misfortunes  of  Mustapha. — Pass  of 
Zigana  Dagh. — Arrival  at  TrebUond. 

On  the  27th  of.  December,  all  preparations  being 
completed,  I  started  on  my  journey  over  the  mount- 
ains to  Trebizond.  Kiamili  Pasha  had  prepared  an  or- 
der to  all  and  sundry,  great  and  small,  upon  the  road, 
to  give  me  every  assistance,  and,  with  this  and  a  pow- 
erful firman  from  the  Sultan,  I  had  authority  to  do 
whatever  I  pleased  in  that  part  of  the  world.  About 
twenty  attendants  accompanied  me,  besides  a  certain 
levy  from  every  village  I  passed,  who  were  to  march 
to  the  next  village  every  day  to  clear  the  roads,  move 
the  snow,  and  piok  us  out  of  it  when  we  tumbled  in, 
&c.  These  villagers  were  all  armed  with  the  peculiar 
da^er_ofCir  cassia,  called  a  cama,  a  most  efficient  tool 
as  well  as  weapon,  and  a  short,  heavy  rifle,  generally 
beautifully  made,  with  which  they  hit  objects  at  very 
long  distances,  400  yards  not  being  considered  out  of 
shot.  My  personal  appearance  must  have  been  re- 
markable :  I  had  a  long  beard,  and  so  thin  a  face  that 
my  nose  was  translucent,  if  not  transparent.  I  had  a 
Persian  cap  upon  my  head,  and  over  other  garments  a 
toilet  of  my  own  invention,  which  vested  me  with  a  dig- 
nity peculiar  to  myself:  this  was  a  large  eider  down 
quilt,  of  bright  green  silk,  in  the  middle  of  which  I  had 
caused  a  hole  to  be  made,  through  which  I  put  my 


156  ARMENIA. 


head  ;  the  two  ends  of  the  quilt  hung  down  before  and 
behind,  like  a  chasuble  or  a  poncho ;  round  it  I  tied  a 
girdle.  My  general  appearance  must  have  been  rather 
striking  to  the  beholder,  and  was  probably  considered 
by  the  natives  on  the  road  as  the  official  costume  of  an 
Elchi  Bey.  I  was  so  weak  that  when  I  was  bundled 
into  the  takterawan  I  could  not  turn  round,  and  was 
nearly  smothered  in  my  own  feathers,  till  somebody 
turned  me  on  the  right  side  upward,  when  I  was  able 
to  bid  adieu  to  all  the  principal  Europeans  and  others 
who  had  kindly  assembled  to  see  me  off.  A  number 
of  people  accompanied  me  for  some  distance  out  of 
the  town ;  and  Colonel  Williams  came  as  far  as  Elije, 
about  three  hours  in  the  snow,  which  ended  my  first 
day's  march. 

On  the  next  day,  December  28th,  we  got  to  Mey- 
mansoor,  a  village  at  the  foot  of  the  first  mountain 
pass,  called  Hoshapoona^g.  terrible  place  at  all  times, 
but  frightful  in  the  depth  of  winter,  and  under  the  cir- 
cumstances I  was  in.  Only  two  or  three  days  before 
it  had  been  rendered  practicable,  by  driving  a  thousand 
horses,  belonging  to  the  caravans  which  were  snowed 
up  at  the  foot  of  the  pass,  up  and  down  the  road  to 
make  a  track.  This  road  is  what  is  called  a  scala ; 
that  is,  a  series  of  holes,  each  about  a  foot  deep,  some- 
times two  feet,  about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  and 
the  same  in  distance  from  one  another.  From  long 
practice,  the  horses  put  their  feet  very  cleverly  into 
these  holes  without  tripping  over  the  intervening  ridges 
of  hardened  snow.  Men  on  foot  usually  step  on  the 
ridges,  which  is  like  walking  on  the  rounds  of  a  ladder 
for  a  few  hundred  miles,  the  probabilities  of  not  break- 


MOUNTAIN    PASS.  ^57 

ing  your  leg  if  you  slip  into  the  hole  before  or  behind 
you  being  very  slight.  As  in  many  places  this  road 
was  slantindicular,  going  up  and  down  at  an  angle  of 
45°,  I  was  reclining  in  the  litter  alternately  on  my 
head  and  on  my  heels — mostly  on  my  head  going  up 
hill.  My  mules  were  held  upon  their  feet  by  as  many 
men  as  could  stand  on  each  side,  where  the  road  was 
wide  enough ;  most  of  it  was  a  ledge  on  a  precipice, 
about  eighteen  inches  wide,  when  the  men  supported 
my  equipage  with  ropes,  a  strong  body  hopping  and 
stumbling  behind  and  before,  at  the  rate  of  about  one 
mile  an  hour.  My  glass  windows  were  smashed  with 
the  least  possible  delay,  but  we  repaired  them  the  next 
day  with  oiled  paper.  At  the  top  of  the  pass  we  came 
upon  a  p^rty  of  Persians,  who  were  going  the  other 
way  toward  Erzeroom  ;  they  were  seated  in  a  row,  on 
the  ledge  of  the  precipice,  looking  despairingly  at  a 
number  of  their  baggage-horses  which  had  tumbled 
over,  and  were  wallowing  in  the  snow  many  hundred 
feet  below.  They  did  not  seem  to  be  killed,  as  far  as  I 
could  see,  as  the  snow  had  broken  their  fall.  The  drift 
covered  the  precipitous  rock  from  the  bottom  to  within 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  of  the  top,  and  they  slid  down 
this  till  they  popped  into  a  deep  hole  in  the  snow,  like 
a  well,  in  the  valley  below.  It  did  not  appear  that 
there  was  any  probability  of  their  getting  up  again. 
The  poor  Persians  crammed  themselves  into  nooks  and 
little  hollows  on  the  ledge  to  make  room  for  us  to  pass. 
I  presume  their  horses  were  frozen  to  death  before  we 
had  left  them  very  long.  This  was  an  awful  spot  al- 
together. "We  had  started  before  light  in  the  morning, 
and  arrived  in  a  dreary  mountain  valley,  at  a  hovel 


158  ARMENIA. 


called  Zaza  Khan,  in  the  evening.  During  one  part  of 
the  day,  the  danger  to  the  takterawan  was  so  great 
that  I  was  plucked  out,  and  a  tall,  good-natured  man, 
called  Beyragdar  (the  standard-bearer),  carried  me  like 
a  baby  in  his  arms,  one  or  two  others  supporting  him, 
across  a  tremendous  ledge.  I  was  light  enough  to  car- 
ry, but  was  such  a  great  bundle  of  fluff  that  he  could 
not  see  over  me,  and  another  man  helped  him  along, 
and  showed  him  where  to  put  his  feet.  We  were  very 
fortunate  in  a  fine  sunny  day  for  our  journey  over  this 
tremendous  mountain.  On  the  last  day  of  the  year 
1843  we  arrived  at  the  town  of  Beyboort.  Though  I 
had  sent  two  horsemen  on  to  say  that  I  was  coming, 
no  one  came  out  of  the  town  to  meet  me,  and  on  pro- 
ceeding to  the  palace  or  house  of  the  Bey,  the  govern- 
or of  the  place  I  was  refused  admittance,  though  he 
had  received  orders  before  to  pay  me  every  attention. 
I  at  last  was  taken  in  by  the  Cadi,  in  whose  comfort- 
able house  1  was  kindly  entertained.  The  next  day 
we  met  a  tatar,  a  government  courier,  on  the  road 
from  Trebizond.  I  sent  letters  by  him  to  Erzeroom, 
complaining  of  my  reception  by  the  Bey  of  Beyboort ; 
and  so  rapidly  were  matters  conducted  by  my  friend 
the  Pasha,  that  the  Bey  was  turned  out  of  his  govern- 
ment, and  another  Bey  appointed  to  succeed  him,  be- 
fore I  and  my  party  arrived  at  Trebizond.  This  was 
sharp  practice,  and  doubtless  had  a  good  effect.  The 
chiefs  of  the  other  villages,  and  the  one  town  of  Gu- 
mush  Khanne,  treated  me  always  with  great  kindness 
and  civility.  On  the  2d  of  January,  at  a  hovel  called 
Khaderach  Khan,  I  met  a  rich  Persian  merchant  com- 
ing from  Constantinople  with  his  wife  and  family.    He 


WAYSIDE    ACQUAINTANCES.  159 

had  been  eighteen  days  on  the  road  from  Trebizond, 
which  is  thirty-two  hours  of  tatar-posting ;  from  hence, 
at  this  rate,  he  would  be  six  months  on  his  journey  to 
Teheran,  to  which  place  he  waTrjounoT  He  was  a  re- 
markably gentleman-like  man,  as  most  Persian  gentle- 
men are.  He  had  a  great  train  of  servants  and  attend- 
ants, well  dressed  and  well  armed,  each  with  a  silver 
tass,  or  drinking-cup,  slung  over  his  shoulder,  and  a 
handsome  cama  dangling  by  a  narrow  strap  from  the 
front  of  his  girdle,  and  his  waist  squeezed  till  he  could 
hardly  shut  his  mouth,  in  true  Circassian  style.  He 
had  numbers  of  curious  contrivances  for  comfort  and 
convenience  :  little  fire-places,  hanging  to  the  stirrup, 
for  hot  coals,  to  light  the  caleoons,  &c.  His  son,  a 
smart  youth,  spoke  French,  and  we  passed  a  very 
pleasant  hour  together,  though  I  had  turned  him  out 
of  the  best  hole  in  the  hovel,  into  which  Beyragdar  laid 
me  down  softly  in  the  corner  ;  and  I  was  so  much  ex- 
hausted that  I  knew  nothing  of  the  confusion  I  had 
made  till  I  had  had  a  cup  of  blazing  hot  Russian  tea^ 
with  a  slice  of  lemon  in  it  instead  of  cream,  and  had 
taken  the  diversion  of  wondering  at  an  odd  sort  of  par- 
tridge which  one  of  my  men  had  knocked  over  with"  a 
stone,  for  which  act  I  presented  him  with  the  sum  of 
5%d.  sterling. 

At  Kale  Khan  I  had  given  leave  to  one  Mustapha, 
my  kawass  bashi,  or  captain  of  the  kawasses,  to  go 
and  see  his  family,  who  lived  in  a  village  a  short  dis- 
tance off  the  road  ;  he  had  not  seen  them  for  a  long 
time,  and  went  on  his  way  rejoicing.  At  a  place  call- 
ed Porda  Bakchelari,  where  I  was  resting  on  the  3d, 
he  made  his  appearance  again  ;  he  was  so  altered  in 


160  ARMENIA. 


looks  that  I  did  not  know  him  at  first ;  so  much  so, 
that  I  asked  him  who  he  was,  and  what  he  wanted 
with  me.     His  history,  poor  fellow !  was  as  follows : 

When  he  arrived  at  his  village,  he  rode  up  to  the 
door  of  his  own  house,  thinking  to  give  a  happy  sur- 
prise to  his  wife  and  children,  whose  names  he  called 
out  as  he  stopped  his  horse  in  the  little  street.  No 
one  answered,  when  he  called  again,  and  knocked  loud- 
ly at  the  door  several  times.  At  last  an  old  woman 
put  her  head  out  of  the  door  of  another  house,  and 
screamed  to  him  to  know  what  he  was  making  such  a 
noise  about. 

"  I  want  such  a  one,"  said  he,  naming  his  wife. 

"What,  Eyesha?"  said  the  old  woman;  "who  are 
you  ?  You  must  be  a  stranger  to  this  place  not  to 
know  that  she  died  of  the  fever  and  was  buried  two 
weeks  ago." 

"  And  where  is  Hassan  ?"  said  the  poor  kawass,  ask- 
ing for  his  eldest  son. 

"  Oh,  he  died  three  months  ago." 

"And  the  two  little  ones ?"  he  asked. 

"  They  were  buried,  I  forget  how  long  it  is  since," 
said  the  old  woman ;  "  the  fever  got  into  that  house  ; 
the  people  are  all  dead.  You  had  better  not  go  in, 
stranger,  for  it  has  been  locked  up  by  the  cadi,  and  the 
owner,  Mustapha  Aga,  lives  a  long  way  off  at  Erze- 
room.  Inshalla  !  he  will  come  some  day,  and  the  cadi 
will  deliver  the  key  to  him." 

Mustapha  kawass  never  dismounted  from  his  horse 
in  his  native  village  ;  he  turned  slowly  away,  and  rode 
back  to  the  track  of  the  mules  and  horses  of  my  fol- 
lowers till  he  caught  us  up  at  Bakchelari  Khan. 


PASS    OF    ZIGANA    D  A  G  H.  IQl 

"  Allahkerim  !"  (G-od  is  merciful !)  said  his  compan- 
ions, when  he  had  told  us  this  sad  history.  His  family- 
was  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  there  was  not  a 
servant  left,  not  one  old  well-rememhered  face  to  greet 
him  in  his  visit  to  the  village  where  he  had  passed  his 
childish  days.  He  had  heard  nothing  of  the  fever  or 
of  the  infliction  which  had  fallen  upon  his  house,  and 
suddenly  he  found  himself  alone  in  the  wide  world. 
"We  were  all  grieved  for  him,  hut  what  could  we  do  ? 
every  one  looked  grave  as  we  plodded  on  again  through 
the  snow  and  ice,  and  smoked  the  pipe  of  reflection  in 
silence  on  our  weary  way. 

On  the  7th  we  got  into  a  fix  near  a  place  called 
Madem  Khanlari,  in  the  pass  of  Zigana  Dagh,  a  worse 
place  than  even  Hoshabounar  :  we  had  been  all  day 
scrambling  about  in  rocky  ledges,  and  crossing  torrents 
and  Snow-drifts,  each  of  which  seemed  impassable  till 
we  went  at  it  with  a  will :  a  number  of  villagers,  with 
axes  and  ropes,  came  with  us,  and  worked  valiantly  in 
clearing  the  ice  off  the  narrow  shelves  of  rock,  and 
leading  the  horses  through  the  most  difficult  places, 
where  they  could  hardly  stand  ;  sometimes  the  horses 
were  almost  lifted  by  the  men.  By  the  greatest  care 
and  exertion,  none  as  yet  fell  over  the  precipices.  My 
takterawan  was  surrounded  by  a  posse  of  zealous,  act- 
ive mountaineers,  clinging  to  each  other,  and  putting 
the  mules'  feet  into  the  holes  which  they  cut  for  them 
with  their  axes.  At  last  we  got  to  a  place  where  there 
was  a  sudden  turn  at  the  narrow  edge  of  a  gorge  or 
cleft  of  rock  :  the  length  of  the  litter,  with  one  mule 
before  and  another  behind,  made  it  impossible  to  turn 
without  going  over.     Somehow,  by  the  help  of  a  num- 


262  ARMENIA. 


ber  of  men,  the  front  mule  was  carried  by  main  force 
round  the  corner,  till  we  were  in  such  a  position  that 
the  hinder  mule  was  being  dragged  over  the  precipice 
by  the  poles  of  the  takterawan,  to  which  it  was  har- 
nessed. "Without  a  drawing  it  is  difficult  to  describe 
the  position  we  had  got  into  ;  but  it  may  be  partly  un- 
derstood by  the  fact  that,  out  of  whichever  side  of  the 
takterawan  I  looked,  there  was  nothing  under  me,  for 
perhaps  two  hundred  feet,  till  you  arrived  at  a  brawl- 
ing torrent,  which  kept  itself  alive  by  violent  exercise, 
in  jumping,  leaping,  and  tumbling  over  the  rocks  and 
cascades  at  the  bottom  of  the  ravine,  so  that  it  was 
the  only  thing  not  frozen  hard  and  still  in  the  dead 
landscape  of  thick  ice,  and  snow,  and  shattered  rock, 
and  the  clean,  smooth  precipice  towered  up  from  the 
little  merry  stream  to  hundreds  of  feet  above  our  heads, 
where  an  edge  of  snow  and  a  fringe  of  icicles  shone  in 
the  bright  sky  upon  the  topmost  margin  of  the  cliffs. 
Some  of  the  men  now  sat  down,  with  their  legs  hang- 
ing over  the  precipice ;  they  were  supported  by  other 
men,  while,  in  their  turn,  they  held  the  legs  of  the 
mules,  who  were  beginning  to  get  frightened,  or  per- 
haps choked,  and  gave  utterance  to  curious  exclama- 
tions. My  friend  Beyragdar  made  a  bridge  of  his  long 
body,  by  leaning  over  from  the  inner  angle  of  the  road 
to  the  side  of  the  takterawan.  As  for  me,  beyond 
peeping  like  an  old  rat  out  of  a  cage,  I  could  not  move, 
so  I  lay  still  till  I  was  pulled  out  by  two  men  over 
Beyragdar's  back,  handed  like  a  bundle  over  the  fore- 
most mule,  and  stuck  upon  a  horse  a  little  farther  on. 
The  mules  were,  somehow  or  other,  saved  and  released 
from  the  shafts  of  the  takterawan,  which  I  never  saw 


OF   THg 

UNIVERSITY 


£ai 


«     M 


ARRIVAL   AT   TREB1Z0ND.  IQ5 

again ;  they  could  get  it  no  further,  and  the  rest  of  the 
journey  I  made  on^  horseback,  supported  by  a  man  on 
each  side  when  the  road  was  wide  enough,  by  one 
when  it  was  too  narrow  for  two,  and,  when  there  was 
only  room  for  the  horse  alone,  Bejvragdar  carried  me  in 
his  arms  till  we  got  to  the  Strada  Reale,  good  two  feet 
wide,  when  I  was  put  upon  a  horse  again. 

In  this  way,  by  slow  degrees,  we  scrambled  on  our 
way,  till,  on  the  10th  of  January,  after  fifteen  days' 
journey  through  the  intense  cold  of  the  mountains,  I 
arrived,  in  better  health  and  strength  than  when  I 
started,  at  the  edge  of  the  table-land,  from  whence  I 
saw  the  blue  waters  of  the  sea,  and  at  11  o'clock  A.M. 
I  was  seated  in  my  room  in  the  quarantine  station  at 
Trebizond. 


OF    THF 

UNIVERSi 

OF 


IQQ  ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Former  History  of  Trebizond. — Ravages  of  the  Goths. — Their  Siege 
and  Capture  of  the  City. — Dynasties  of  Courtenai  and  the  Comneni. 
— The  "  Emperor"  David. — Conquest  of  Trebizond  by  Mehemet  II. 

Trebizond,  so  famous  in  the  Middle  Ages -as  ihfi-ies- 
idence  of  magicians,  enchanters,  and  redoubted  heroes 
of  chivalry,  is  better  known  in  the  pages  of  romance 
than  for  any  facts  of  historical  importance  which  oc- 
curred there  during  many  centuries.  The  only  person 
who  might  probably  have  been  able  to  throw  much 
light  upon  the  ancient'  history  of  this  Byzantine  city 
was  that  veracious  chronicler,  the  Cid  Hamet  Benge- 
nelli,  who,  in  his  account  of  the  renowned  and  valor- 
ous Knight  of  the  Rueful  Countenance,  records  of  Don 
Quixote  that  "  the  poor  gentleman  already  imagined 
himself  at  least  crowned  Emperor  of  Trebizond  by  the 
valor  of  his  arm ;  and  wrapped  up  in  these  agreeable 
delusions,  and  hurried  on  by  the  strange  pleasure  he 
took  in  romances  of  chivalry,  he  prepared  to  execute 
what  he  so  much  desired." 

Two  real  events,  however,  occurred  at  Trebizond 
which  I  shall  endeavor  to  describe  —  the  only  ones 
which  stand  out  with  any  prominence  in  the  records 
of  the  dukes,  counts,  and  governors  who  held  this  prov- 
ince in  their  languid  rule. 

In  the  third  centurj^ihe  Goths,,  a  band  of  desperate 
barbarians,  who  came  originally  from  Prussia,  were 
established  in  a  curious  out-of-the-way  kingdom,  situ- 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH   OF   TREBIZOND.  ^57 

ated  on  the  Cimmerian  Bosporus,  the  inlet  which  gives 
access  to  the  Sea  of  Azof  from  the  Black  Sea.  Tj&ki** 
zond,  the  capital  of  a  Roman  province,  had  been  found- 
ed in  the  days  of  Xenophon  by  a  Grecian  colony,  and 
now  owed  its  wealth  and  splendor  to  the  munificence 
of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  who  had  constructed  an  axti~ 
flcial  harbor  for  its  shipping,  while  the  town  was  de- 
fended on  the  land  side  by  a  double  line  of  walls  and 
towers,  some  part  of  which  probably  exist  at  the  pres- 
ent time  among  the  fortifications  afterward  erected  by 
the  Christian  emperors  and  the  Turks.  In  those  troub- 
lous times  the  country  was  in  disorder,  and  the  wealthy 
patricians  had  sent  their  treasures  into  the  town  for 
greater  security,  the  garrison  having  been  re-enforced 
by  an  additional  body  of  10,000  men.  A  numerous 
fleet  of  ships  was  in  the  harbor,  which,  perhaps,  were 
timidly  seeking  refuge  from  the  pirates  of  the  Euxine 
within  the  encircling  quays  of  the  harbor  of  Hadrian. 
The  riches  of  the  inhabitants,  the  balmy  climate,  and 
the  soft  manners  of  the  Greeks,  had  enervated  the  spir- 
its of  the  commanders  of  the  troops ;  the  fashionable 
triflers  were  sunk  in  luxury  and  ease ;  feeling  secure 
within  the  impregnable  walls  of  the  imperial  fortress, 
they  gave  themselves  up  to  feelings  of  indolent  dis- 
dain of  foreign  enemies ;  and  the  brilliant  officers  and 
scornful  senators,  in  flowing  robes,  passed  their  days 
in  feasting  and  attending  upon  the  ladies,  to  the  neglect 
of  discipline  and  vigilance,  trusting  that  the  lofty  walls 
and  mighty  towers  were  sufficient  bulwarks  to  keep 
off  the  barbarians  whom  they  despised. 

About  the  year  260  of  our  era,  the  Goths,  who  had 
made  several  roving  expeditions  on  the  shores  of  Cir- 


IQQ  ARMENIA. 


cassia,  had  plundered,  with  various  success,  the  tem- 
ples and  cities  on  the  coasts  of  the  Black  Sea.  These 
indomitable  savages  embarked  on  board  a  fleet  of  small 
,flat-bottomed  boats,  each  containing  only  a  few  men, 
:  who  inhabited  a  sort  of  house  with  a  shelving  roof, 
;  built  of  wood,  in  the  centre  of  the  boat.  An  innumer- 
''  able  shoal  of  these  floating  houses  spread  over  the  sur- 
face of  the  waves,  trusting  to  the  winds  for  the  course 
they  should  pursue,  and  to  the  ravage  of  the  villages 
on  shore  for  food.  This  swarm  of  rapacious  pirates  ar- 
rived in  the  course  of  one  of  their  forays  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Trebizond  ;  they  landed  in  numbers  under 
the  walls,  from  the  summits  of  which  the  fair  damsels 
and  silken  warriors  looked  down  with  pitying  scorn  on 
the  uncouth  behavior,  badly-made  garments,  and  coarse 
appearance  of  the  roving  Groths,  and,  having  satisfied 
their  curiosity  and  expressed  their  contempt  for  the 
horde  of  barbarians  who  had  arrived  in  the  strange  fleet 
of  little  boats,  they  retired  to  the  arcades  surrounding 
the  courts  of  the  palaces  ;  some  went  to  the  forum  in 
the  centre  of  the  town,  to  hear  the  news  and  laugh  at 
the  uncouth  appearance  of  the  Groths.  The  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  changing  their  morning  dresses  for  a  lighter 
and  richer  evening  costume,  assembled  in  the  marble 
halls  of  many  palaces,  charmed  with  the  excitement  of 
a  new  subject  for  ridicule  in  the  persons  and  dresses 
of  the  Groths,  and  a  new  theme  for  conversation  in  the 
refined  assemblies  of  the  polished  nobles  and  lovely 
damsels  of  the  luxurious  city  of  Trebizond. 

I  can  imagine  the  conversation  of  a  pleasant  little 
party  assembled  in  the  triclinium  of  the  prefect  of  the 
city.     The  gentlemen,  in  studied  attitudes,  reclining 


AN    IMAGINARY    CONVERSATION.        IQQ 

on  the  divans  or  couches  placed  against  the  wall,  be- 
hind the  marble  tables ;  the  ladies,  in  graceful  robes, 
seated  at  their  feet;  while  pages,  with  wreaths  of 
flowers  round  their  heads,  in  short  tunics  of  white  silk, 
brought  up  dishes  of  blackbirds  stewed  in  wine ;  tarts 
sweetened  with  honey,  which  could  be  eaten  with  im- 
punity by  natives,  while  strangers  lost  their  senses  if 
they  ventured  on  the  dangerous  condiment. 

"  Eudocia,  dearest,  did  you  go  up  those  horrid  steps 
upon  the  wall,  to  look  at  those  people  outside  ?  Did 
you  ever  see  such  creatures  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes,  Lais,  I  did.  Poor  barbarians !  why  do 
they  tie  their  legs  up  with  leather  thongs  in  that  funny 
way  ?  And  what  skimpy  tunics  they  wear  !  I  think 
they  must  be  made  of  sheepskin  !  There  was  one  of 
them — a  great  personage,  no  doubt,  in  his  own  nasty  lit- 
tle country — who  had  made  himself  a  toga  of  a  blanket. 
Did  not  you  see  him,  Xenophon?    You  were  with  us." 

"Well — aw — why,  yes,  I  think  I  did,"  says  Xeno- 
phon ;  "  but  what  heavy  axes  they  carry  !  what  long, 
straight  swords  they  Wear !  They  say  their  hilts  are 
gold ;  I  dare  swear  they  are  brass.  Our  legionaries 
would  make  short  work  of  them." 

"  "Well,"  says  Lais,  "  I  wish  you  would  send  those 
ugly  people  away,  for  one  can  not  take  a  drive  in  the 
Hippodrome  since  they  have  been  here  these  two  days, 
and  the  new  silver  harness  for  my  white  oxen  is  so 
pretty.  But,  Eudocia,  did  you  see  the  lady  ?  I  hear 
she  is  a  princess — a  princess,  who  travels  in  a  punt ! 
Dear  me,  a  great  lady  she  must  be !" 

"  I  never  heard  of  her,"  says  Eudocia ;  "  do  tell  me 
all  about  her.    What  is  she  like  ?    Is  she  tall  or  short  ? 

H 


170  ARMENIA. 


pretty  or  ugly  ?  or  what  ?  Let  us  have  a  description 
of  your  barbarian  lady." 

"  Why,"  answers  Lais,  "  she  is  awfully  tall,  and  she 
has  light  hair,  plaited  in  two  long  tails  like  ropes,  and 
much  of  the  same  color,  which  hang  down  on  each  side 
of  her  face  in  front,  and  reach  to  her  knees.  She  is 
dressed  in  a  long  and  very  full  gown,  with  innumer- 
able plaits,  coming  high  up  round  her  throat.  Her 
gown  is  confined  round  her  waist  by  a  girdle  of  gold 
and  jewels,  and  she  has  a  golden  fillet  round  her  head. 
This  gown  was  light  blue,  and  was  so  long  I  could  not 
see  her  feet ;  but  those  of  the  maidens  with  her  were 
of  such  a  size,  Eudocia,  that  four  of  our  feet  might 
walk  about  in  their  shoes,  which  were  of  gold  stuff, 
coming  up  to  the  ankle,  and  worked  with  pearls — as 
heavy  as  lead,  I  should  imagine." 

"  But  was  the  princess  pretty?"  again  inquires  Eu- 
docia. 

"Xenophon  says  she  is,  but  I  don't  believe  him. 
She  has  strange-colored  eyes,  I  was  told — the  color  of 
her  gown,  and  is  not  pale  and  smooth  as  marble,  but 
with  rosy  cheeks  and  a  throat  as  white  as  snow ;  but 
she  looked  very  stupid,  and  solemn,  and  proud.  What 
she  can  have  to  be  proud  of,  poor  creature !  I  can  not 
conceive ;  she  has  not  the  black  eyes  and  bright  smile 
of  our  girls." 

"  That  is  a  curious  wool  the  men  wear  on  their 
caps,"  saith  Xenophon ;  "  it  is  curly,  and  of  a  light 
bluish-gray  color.  The  barbarians  seem  to  think  it  is 
very  fine.  I  have  not  seen  any  thing  like  it :  it  is 
made  of  the  skin  of  a  peculiar  breed  of  lambs,  to  be 
met  with  nowhere  out  of  their  country." 


ASSAULT    ON    TREBIZOND.  tf^ 

"  What  in  the  world  can  they  want  so  many  fagots 
for  ?"  asks  another  young  lady.  "  I  am  sure  the  days 
are  hot  enough  in  the  summer ;  perhaps  they  have  no 
firewood  in  their  own  miserable  regions ;  they  have 
been  doing  nothing  but  cut  bushes  and  make  fagots 
of  them  on  the  hill-side  above  the  citadel  ever  since 
they  have  been  here." 

"Ah,"  says  Xenophon,  "except  the  amusement  of 
burning  a  few  villages,  though  that  could  hardly  repay 
them  the  trouble,  for  all  the  goods  worth  carrying  away 
have  been  brought  within  the  walls.  However,  here 
comes  the  little  cup-bearer  with  the  Chian  and  Faler- 
nian  wine.  Never  mind  these  outer  barbarians;  let 
us  go  to  supper." 

So  they  went  to  supper,  and,  affecting  classic  tastes, 
sang  verses  on  heroic  themes  from  Homer,  accompa- 
nied by  music  on  the  lyre  and  the  double  pipe. 

The  Groths  went  to  supper  too  outside,  under  the 
trees,  and  ate  great  pieces  of  beef  cut  from  oxen  roasted 
whole.  The  night  was  very  dark,  but  the  guards  and 
the  citizens  lit  up  their  rooms  gayly  within  the  city, 
which  resounded  with  laughter,  songs,  and  merriment. 

The  night  advanced,  and  so  did  the  Cloths;  each 
man  bore  a  fagot,  which  he  threw  into  the  ditch  be- 
low the  wall.  Thousands  were  piled  upon  those  be- 
low, others  were  thrown  on  them ;  the  heap  of  fagots 
rose,  the  upper  ones  were  level  with  the  battlements. 
Where  were  the  city  guards  ?  Where  were  the  legion- 
aries and  the  10,000  auxiliary  troops?  They  were 
sleeping  off  the  fatigues  of  the  evening  feast ;  they  were 
any  where  but  where  they  should  be — upon  the  walls. 

Down  from  the  towers  and  the  bastions  poured  a 


^72  ARMENIA. 


stream  of  fierce  determined  warriors ;  they  closed  the 
gates  on  that  side,  for  fear  the  garrison  should  get  out ; 
but  the  alarm  was  spread ;  the  legionaries,  who  were 
awakened  by  the  cry,  made  off  through  the  opposite 
side  of  the  fortifications  and  escaped  into  the  country. 
Those  who  were  not  quick  enough  were  stabbed  in  the 
back  and  slain  in  heaps ;  fire  and  the  sword  commenced 
their  fearful  reign,  blood  ran  in  the  streets,  the  massa- 
cre was  horrible.  The  most  holy  temples,  says  the 
historian,  the  most  splendid  edifices,  were  involved  in 
a  common  destruction.  The  booty  that  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  G-oths  was  immense.  The  wealth  of  the 
adjacent  countries,  which  had  been  deposited  in  Tre- 
bizond  as  a  secure  place  of  refuge,  was  added  to  the 
spoil.  The  number  of  captives  was  incredible ;  those 
who  were  left  alive  were  gathered  together  by  the 
Goths.  Lais  and  Eudocia  became  the  handmaids  of 
the.  Gothic  princess.  Xenophon  and  2000  able-bodied 
dandies  were  driven  down  to  the  port  by  200  Goths, 
who  made  them  chain  each  other  to  the  oars  of  the  gal- 
leys, on  board  of  which  the  enormous  plunder  of  Trebi- 
zond  was  embarked  by  the  forced  labor  of  the  citizens, 
one  or  two  being  cut  in  half  with  a  sweep  of  the  long 
Gothic  sword,  to  encourage  the  others  if  they  did  not 
hurry  in  their  work  under  the  burning  rays  of  the  sun. 
The  Cimmerian  Bosporus  received  the  fleet  of  galleys 
laden  with  the  treasures,  and  rowed  by  the  slaves,  of 
the  noble  city  of  Trebizond,  now  smouldering  in  a  heap 
of  smoking  ruins. 

Thus  ended  the  first  episode  in  the  history  of  Trebi- 
zond. 

For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  history  of  Tre- 


THE    COURTENAI    ANDCOMNENI.        ^73 

"bizond  remains  enveloped  in  the  mists  of  obscurity  and 
insignificance ;  various  dukes,  princes,  and  counts  suc- 
ceeded each  other  in  a  long  line  of  inglorious  pride. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  the  chivalrous  house  of 
Courtenai,  by  the  assistance  of  the  heroes  of  the  Cru- 
sades, mounted  the  throne  of  Constantinople,  and  the 
ancestors  of  the  Earl  of  Devon  produced  three  emperors, 
who  reigned  in  succession  over  the  Oriental  portion  of 
the  Roman  empire.  The  ancient  dynasty  of  the  Com- 
neni,  being  expelled  from  the  dominions  over  which  they 
had  presided  for  centuries,  fled  for  refuge  into  various 
lands.  Alexius,  the  son  of  Manuel  and  grandson  of  An- 
dronicus  Comnenus,  obtained  the  government  of  the 
duchy  of  Trebizond,  which  extended  from  the  unfortu- 
nate Sin'ope  to  the  borders  of  Circassia.  He  seems  to 
have  reigned  in  peace.  The  acts  of  his  son,  who  suc- 
ceeded him,  are  as  unknown  as  his  name,  which  has  not 
even  descended  to  posterity.  The  grandson  of  Alexius 
was  David  Comnenus,  who,  with  an  assurance  and  pre- 
sumption which  is  almost  ludicrous,  took  upon  himself 
the  style  and  title  of  Emperor  of  Trebizond.  Puffed 
up  with  vanity  and  self-conceit,  this  feeble  prince  en- 
joyed for  a  short  period  the  imperial  dignity  which  he 
possessed  only  in  name.  The  erection  of  this  quaint 
and  ridiculous  Christian  empire  appears  to  have  made 
a  great  sensation  among  the  knights  and  troubadours 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  geographical  knowledge 
of  those  days  was  confined  to  few,  and  the  empire  of 
Trebizond,  like  that  of  Prester  John,  whose  extent  and 
situation  were  equally  apocryphal,  formed  the  theme 
of  many  a  fabulous  adventure  and  many  a  romance, 
which  served  to  beguile  the  evening  hours  by  the 


174  ARMENIA. 


firesides  of  the  castles  and  convents  of  England  and 
France.  Fairies  and  wizards,  ogres  and  giants,  peo- 
pled the  realms  of  fancy  in  this  distant  empire.  Love- 
ly princesses  were  rescued  from  the  thraldom  of  pay- 
nim  castellans,  and  followers  of  Mahound  and  Terma- 
gaunt,  by  valiant  Christian  knights  armed  with  cross- 
hilted  swords,  and  lutes,  and  talismans,  the  gift  of  be- 
nignant fairies,  whose  existence  was  only  to  be  found 
in  the  imaginations  of  the  unknown  but  delightful  au- 
thors of  the  romances  of  chivalry,  and  the  poems  and 
ballads  of  the  trouveurs  and  troubadours. 

The  truths  were  not  so  agreeable  as  the  fictions  of 
"the  good  old  times."  As  it  happens  to  be  in  my 
power  to  do  so,  I  present  the  reader  with  a  portrait  of 
the  mighty  emperor,  as  he  appeared  on  the  occasion 
which  I  am  about  to  describe.  v  His  dress  consisted  of 
a  tight  gown  of  scarlet  silk ;  round  his  neck,  down  the 
front  of  his  gown,  and  round  the  bottom  of  it,  were 
bands  of  gold  about  four  inches  wide ;  these  were  edged 
with  pearls,  and  ornamented  with  large  rubies  and  em- 
eralds in  rows  down  the  centre  of  each  band  of  gold. 
On  his  arms,  above  the  elbows,  were  golden  armlets, 
and  round  his  wrists  gold  bracelets,  all  set  with  color- 
ed precious  stones.  His  girdle,  of  the  same  pattern, 
and  about  three  inches  wide,  had  a  hanging  end  about 
two  feet  long,  which  the  Byzantine  emperors,  for  some 
undiscovered  reason,  seem  always  to  have  carried  over 
the  left  arm.  In  his  right  hand  he  bore  a  golden  scep- 
tre, about  three  feet  long,  with  a  largish  cross  at  the 
top,  set  with  enormous  pearls.  On  his  head  he  wore  a 
close  golden  crown,  of  which  the  top  (that  part  made 
of  velvet  in  the  crown  of  England)  was  also  of  metal, 


THE    "EMPEROR"   DAVID   COMNENUS.    375 

like  a  helmet.  From  this  crown  a  fillet  set  with  pearls 
hung  down  on  each  side  of  his  face  to  his  beard,  which 
was  of  some  length.  Scarlet  silk  hose  and  golden  san- 
dals completed  the  imperial  costume,  except  that  he 
rejoiced  in  two  round  ornaments  of  gold  and  jewels, 
each  the  size  of  a  plate,  which  were  affixed  to  his  robe 
on  the  outside  of  the  thigh. 

The  costume  of  the  empress  was  very  similar,  only 
her  crown  was  open  at  the  summit.  She,  contrary  to 
female  custom,  wore  no  girdle,  while  over  her  shoulders 
hung  a  mantle  of  a  dark  color,  embroidered  all  over 
with  gold.  The  emperor  wore  no  mantle,  although 
this  garment  is  usually  considered  as  an  essential  part 
of  the  royal  costume.  Such  was  the  appearance  of 
David  Comnenus,  Emperor  of  Trebizond,  when  he  gave 
audience  to  the  embassadors  from  foreign  powers,  seat- 
ed on  a  golden  throne  at  the  summit  of  a  high  flight 
of  steep  golden  steps,  surrounded  by  his  court  and  his 
officers  (conspicuous  among  whom  appeared  the  lictors 
with  silver  axes,  for,  as  in  the  third  century  the  Ro- 
mans affected  the  usages  of  the  Greeks,  in  the  fifteenth 
century  the  Greeks  followed  the  customs  of  the  Caesars 
— so  prone  is  human  nature  to  revere  the  ancient  cer- 
emonies of  by-gone  days),  puffed  up  with  vanity  at  his 
own  glorious  position,  and  placed  in  awful  majesty 
upon  his  golden  throne  in  the  chamber  of  audience, 
whose  walls  were  painted  to  look  like  porphyry,  and 
the  ceilings  colored  with  figures  on  a  gold  ground  in 
imitation  of  mosaic,  an  ornament  too  expensive  for  the 
resources  of  the  empire.  The  chamberlains  and  her- 
alds with  a  loud  voice  announce  the  arrival  of  an  en- 
voy from  the  high  and  mighty  lord  the  Soldan  Mehemet 


176  ARMENIA. 


II. ;  upon  which  the  twelve  lictors  round  the  throne 
lifted  up  their  voices,  and  cried  out,  "  Semper  bibat 
imperator :"  the  letter  v  not  being  found  in  the  Greek 
alphabet,  vivat  was  spelt  with  a  beta,  6;  and  being 
pronounced  as  it  was  spelt,  the  sense  of  the  exclama- 
tion was  a  good  deal  compromised. 

The  solemn  envoy  from  the  Soldan  stalked  into  the 
hall,  followed  by  a  grisly  retinue  clothed  from  head  to 
foot  in  armor,  partly  composed  of  steel  plates  inlaid 
with  sentences  from  the  Koran  in  gold  letters,  and 
partly  completed  with  flexible  chain  mail.  Their  hel- 
mets had  conical  summits,  almost  like  a  low  church 
steeple,  while  instead  of  plumes  they  displayed  a  rod 
of  steel,  from  which  fluttered  a  small  crimson  flag  from 
the  summits  of  their  casques.  The  letter  from  the 
Soldan,  inclosed  in  a  bag  of  brocade,  was  handed  to 
the  important  emperor,  who,  on  breaking  the  seal,  read 
the  following  words : 

"Wilt  thou  secure  thy  treasures  and  thy  life  by  re- 
signing thy  kingdom,  or  wilt  thou  rather  forfeit  thy 
kingdom,  thy  treasures,  and  thy  life  ?" 

But  a  short  time  before,  such  was  the  terror  occa- 
sioned by  the  name  of  the  redoubted  Sultan  Mehemet 
II.,  who  had  just  planted  the  victorious  crescent  over 
the  cross  of  St.  Sofia,  that  Ismael  Beg,  the  Moham- 
medan Prince  of  Sinope,  who  derived  an  enormous  rev- 
enue from  the  copper-mines  in  his  principality,  imme- 
diately surrendered  his  dominions  on  a  summons  of  a 
like  import  with  the  above,  although  at  that  period  Si- 
nope was  defended  with  strong  fortifications,  400  can- 
nons, and  12,000  men. 

David  Comnenus  descended  from  his  golden  throne 


END    OF   THE    COMNENI    DYNASTY.     J77 

in  the  year  1461,  and  with  his  family  was  sent,  appa- 
rently as  a  prisoner,  to  a  distant  castle,  where,  being 
accused  of  corresponding  with  the  King  of  Persia,  he 
and  his  whole  race  were  massacred  hy  the  orders  of 
his  furious  conqueror.  With  him  ended  the  illustrious 
dynasty  of  the  Comneni,  and  the  history  of  the  inde- 
pendent state  of  Trebizond,  which  has  since  those 
times  remained  a  remote,  and  till  lately  an  almost  un- 
explored province  of  the  Turkish  empire. 
H2 


178  ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  ARMENIA. 

Impassable  Character  of  the  Country. — Dependence  of  Persia  on  the 
Czar. — Russian  Aggrandizement. — Delays  of  the  Western  Powers. 
— Russian  Acquisitions  from  Turkey  and  Persia. — Oppression  of 
the  Russian  Government. — The  Conscription. — Armenian  Emigra- 
tion.— The  Armenian  Patriarch. — Latent  Power  of  the  Pope. — 
Anomalous  Aspect  of  religious  Questions. 

The  description  of  Armenia  and  the  adjacent  dis- 
tricts in  the  foregoing  pages  will  have  sufficed  to  give 
a  general  idea  of  the  many  difficulties  to  be  encoun- 
tered by  those  whose  business  leads  them  through  this 
inhospitable  region,  where  they  meet  with  impediments 
!at  every  step,  from  the  lofty  mountains  traversed  by 
roads  accessible  only  to  mules  and  horses,  the  extreme 
\  cold  of  the  high  passes  and  elevated  plains,  the  impos- 
sibility of  obtaining  provisions,  and  the  savage  charac- 
ter of  the  Koords  and  other  wandering  tribes  who  roam 
over  this  wild  country.  If  a  traveler,  accompanied  by 
a  few  followers,  and  assisted  by  firmans  from  the  Sul- 
tan, finds  this  journey  arduous  in  the  extreme,  how 
much  more  so  must  it  prove  to  the  general  in  com- 
mand of  an  army,  with  many  thousand  men  to  provide 
for,  with  artillery  and  heavy  baggage  to  encumber  his 
march,  on  roads  inaccessible  to  carriages  or  wheeled 
vehicles  of  any  kind  !  and  if  to  these  is  added  an  ene- 
my on  the  alert  to  cut  off  supplies,  to  harass  the  long, 
straggling  line  of  march,  and  to  attack  the  passing 


IMPASSABILITY  OF   THE   COUNTRY.     379 

army  in  narrow  defiles  from  "behind  rocks,  and  from 
the  summits  of  precipices,  where  they  are  safe  from 
molestation,  it  will  be  understood  that  the  difficulties 
presenting  themselves  to  military  operations  in  these 
regions  are  almost  insuperable.  It  is  the  inaccessible 
nature  of  Circassia,  even  more  than  the  bravery  of  its 
inhabitants,  which  has  enabled  them  to  resist  the  over- 
whelming power  of  Russia  for  so  many  years.  On  the 
approach  to  Erzeroom  these  difficulties  increase.  From 
Georgia,  Persia,  and  Trebizond,  there  is  no  other  city 
or  entrepot  where  an  army  could  rest  to  lay  in  stores 
and  collect  supplies  for  a  campaign,  with  the  exception 
of  Erzeroom,  which  is  the  centre  or  key  to  all  these 
districts.  If  it  was  strongly  fortified,  as  it  should  be, 
or  was,  at  any  rate,  in  the  occupation  of  an  active,  in- 
telligent government,  the  power  who  possessed  it  would 
hold  the  fate  of  that  part  of  Asia  in  its  hands. 

No  caravans  could  pass,  no  mercantile  speculations 
could  be  carried  on,  and  no  large  bodies  of  troops  could 
march  without  its  permission.  They  would,  in  all 
probability,  perish  from  the  rigors  of  the  climate  if  they 
were  not  assisted,  even  without  the  necessity  of  attack- 
ing them  by  force  of  arms.  At  this  moment,  the  great- 
er part  of  the  artillery  of  the  Turkish  army  is,  I  be- 
lieve, buried  under  the  snow  in  one  of  the  ravines  be* 
tween  Beyboort  and  Erzeroom,  from  whence  it  has  no 
chance  of  being  rescued  till  next  summer.  It  was  the 
impassable  character  of  this  country,  and  the  treacher- 
ous habits  of  the  robber  tribes  of  Koordistan,  which 
made  the  retreat  of  Xenophon  and  the  Ten  Thousand 
through  the  same  regions  the  wonderful  event  which 
it  has  been  always  considered.     While  this  is  the  na- 


]Q0  ARMENIA. 


ture  of  the  elevated  lands  and  mountains,  the  valleys 
which  surround  the  snowy  regions  are  absolutely  pes- 
tiferous :  in  many  of  them  no  one  can  sleep  one  night 
without  danger  of  fever,  frequently  ending  in  death. 
The  port,  or  roadstead,  of  Batoum  is  so  unhealthy  as 
I  to  be  utterly  uninhabitable  to  strangers  during  all  the 
hot  season  of  the  year.  I  wish  to  draw  attention  to 
these  circumstances,  in  order  to  explain  the  almost  im- 
possibility of  dispossessing  any  power  which  had  al- 
ready obtained  a  firm  footing  in  this  district ;  and  it  is 
in  order  to  fix  herself  firmly  in  this  important  post  that 
Russia  is  now  advancing  in  that  direction,  with  a  per- 
fect knowledge  of  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from 
this  barren  and  unfruitful  region,  while  she  has  the 
advantage  of  being  able  to  send  supplies  to  her  forces 
by  the  Caspian  Sea ;  for,  once  within  her  grasp,  Persia 
is  no  longer  independent ;  and,  fettered  as  she  is  by 
her  Russian  debt,  and  what,  in  private  affairs,  would 
be  called  her  heavy  mortgage  on  her  only  valuable 
provinces  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian — Greilaun  and 
Mazenderaun — she  must  sink  into  the  state  of  a  vas- 
sal kingdom,  subject  to  the  commands  of  her  superior 
lord  the  Czar. 

The  sum  she  owes  to  Russia  is  said  to  be  about  two 
millions  sterling;  far  more  than  she  could  ever  raise 
at  a  short  notice,  while  she  would  receive  no  assistance 
in  war  from  any  of  the  neighboring  Sooni  tribes,  whose 
religious  feelings  are  so  much  opposed  to  the  Sheahs ; 
therefore,  unless  supported  by  Great  Britain,  Persia  is 
now  almost  at  the  mercy  of  Russia.  Russia  is  alto- 
gether a  military  power,  and,  as  in  the  Dark  Ages,  the 
Czar  and  his  nobles  affect  to  despise  the  mercantile 


RUSSIAN   AGGRANDIZEMENT.  \Ql 

class,  and,  instead  of  doing  what  they  can  to  promote 
industry  and  commerce,  by  opening  communications, 
making  roads  and  harbors,  establishing  steamers  on 
rivers,  and  giving  facility  to  the  interchange  of  various 
commodities,  the  productions  of  distant  quarters  of  her 
own  enormous  empire,  she  throws  every  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  her  internal  trade,  and  by  heavy  import 
duties,  exactions  of  many  oppressive  kinds,  and  the 
universal  plunder  and  cheating  carried  on  by  all  the 
government  officials  in  the  lower  grades  of  employ- 
ment, she  has  paralyzed  both  her  foreign  and  domestic 
resources.  The  Czar  prefers  to  buy  his  own  aggran- 
dizement with  the  blood  of  his  confiding  subjects,  to 
the  more  honorable  and  less  cruel  course  of  enriching 
his  empire  by  the  extension  of  his  commercial  relations 
abroad,  and  the  development  of  the  peaceful  arts,  in- 
dustry, science,  and  general  improvement  of  the  nations 
subjected  to  his  rule.  If  it  was  not  for  this  utter  dis- 
regard of  commerce,  and  the  undivided  attention  of  the 
Russian  government  to  every  thing  connected  with 
military  glory,  the  navigation  of  the  great  rivers  would 
have  poured  many  more  roubles  into  the  treasury  of 
St.  Petersburgh  than  will  be  gained  by  any  territorial 
accessions  previous  to  the  taking  of  Constantinople. 
Even  under  present  circumstances,  it  is  wonderful 
that  a  canal  has  not  been  made  from  Tzaritzin,  on  the 
Yolga,  to  the  nearest  point  upon  the  Don,  a  distance 
of  not  more  than  thirty  miles,  for  by  this  means  the 
silk  of  the  northern  provinces  of  Persia  would  be  brought 
with  the  greatest  facility  into  the  Black  Sea.  In  a 
mercantile  point  of  view,  Russia  would  gain  more  by 
the  construction  of  that  canal  than  by  the  conquest  of 


182  ARMENIA. 


Armenia,  for  it  would  enable  her  to  develop  the  great 
resources  of  Greilaun  and  Mazenderaun,  virtually  be- 
longing to  her  at  this  moment.  The^trade.  which  in 
former  times  enriched  the  famous  cities  of  JBokhara 
and  Samarkand  would  be  carried  by  caravans  through 
Khiva,  either  now,  or  soon  to  be,  the  head-quarters  of 
a  Russian  governor;  from  thence  they  would,  with 
any  encouragement,  pass  on  their  rich  bales  of  mer- 
chandise to  the  Russian  posts  of  Karagan,  or  Krasno- 
vodsk,  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Caspian,  or  to  Aste- 
rabad  on  the  south,  and  at  these  ports,  now  unknown 
to  European  navigators,  ships  might  be  laden  which 
would  discharge  their  cargoes  at  Liverpool,  St.  Peters- 
burgh,  or  New  York. 

I  have  said  above  that  Russia  has  but  little  to  gain 
by  her  territorial  conquests  in  Asiatic  Turkey  until  she 
takes  Constantinople.  I  say  this  because,  if  things  are 
permitted  by  the  Western  Powers  to  continue  as  they 
have  done  for  some  years,  the  Czar  will  most  certainly 
be  enthroned  in  the  capital  of  the  Byzantine  emperors, 
principally  by  the  assistance  of  England  and  France. 
It  is  a  question  only  of  time :  for  that  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople  will  give  his  blessing  to  the  Christian 
emperor  under  the  dome  of  St.  Sofia  sooner  or  later, 
and  before  many  years  have  passed,  I  have  hardly  any 
doubt ;  and  when  once  fairly  seated  on  that  throne, 
the  Powers  of  Europe  will  not  shake  him  in  his  seat. 
The  acquisition  of  the  Crimea,  with  the  strong  naval 
arsenal  of  Sevastopol,  gave  the  Czar  the  command  of 
the  Black  Sea.  The  wonderful  business  of  Navarino, 
where  the  English  and  French  admirals  fought  his  bat- 
tle for  him,  and  crippled  his  enemy  and  their  own  an- 


RUSSIAN    AGGRANDIZEMENT.  ^83 

cient  ally  for  many  a  year,  was  the  next  important 
step.  The  third  seems  to  be  taking  place  at  this  mo- 
ment, if  indeed  sufficient  advantages  have  not  heen 
gained  already  to  suffice  for  the  present  emergency. 
It  matters  little  whether  Russia  does  or  does  not  retain 
the  provinces  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  which  she 
has  several  times  occupied  before ;  she  has  almost 
drained  the  treasury  of  her  enemy,  now  straining  eve- 
ry nerve  to  avert  the  impending  evil.  Turkey  will 
hardly  be  able  to  support  the  expenses  of  the  war  for 
any  length  of  time  from  her  own  resources.  Even  if 
a  diplomatic  peace  is  concluded,  it  will,  in  fact,  amount 
only  to  a  truce,  during  which  the  Czar  will  have  time 
to  strengthen  his  position,  and  prepare  his  forces  for 
another  and  a  more  vigorous  assault  on  the  first  con- 
venient opportunity  which  occurs,  from  any  dissension 
which  may  arise  between  the  leading  powers  of  the 
"West ;  and  the  Sultan,  having  received  nothing  from 
his  ancient  allies  but  fair  words,  will  be  less  able  to 
defend  himself  than  he  is  at  present. 

The  greatest  of  blessings  in  this  world  is  peace,  and 
every  thing  should  be  done  to  avoid  the  breaking  out 
of  war,  with  all  the  horrors  and  sufferings  which  are 
brought  upon  mankind  by  that  dreadful  scourge.  I 
think  it  was  the  Duke  of  Wellington  who  said  that, 
next  to  a  defeat,  the  most  awful  of  all  calamities  was 
a  victory.  Every  endeavor  should  be  made  to  secure 
the  happiness  of  peace.  To  those,  however,  who  have 
no  further  means  of  information  than  what  they  read 
in  newspapers,  it  would  seem  that,  while  we  might 
have  put  out  the  candle,  we  have  waited  till  the  chim- 
ney is  on  fire,  if  not  the  house  itself,  and  then  who 


1Q4  ARMENIA. 


can  tell  how  far  and  wide  the  conflagration  may  ex- 
tend ? 

If  England  and  France  had  shown  a  determined 
front,  and  informed  the  Czar  that,  being  bound  by- 
treaty  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Turkish  empire, 
they  should  consider  the  passage  of  the  Pruth  by  one 
Russian  armed  man  as  a  violation  of  that  treaty  and 
a  declaration  of  war,  and  that  they  should  act  accord- 
ingly without  delay,  in  all  probability  no  war  would 
have  commenced,  no  blood  would  have  been  shed,  no 
ruinous  expenses  would  have  been  incurred.  War 
having  commenced,  heavy  and  exhausting  sums  of 
money  have  been  drawn  from  the  treasury  of  the  Sul- 
tan. When  the  ice  set  in  upon  the  Baltic,  what  was 
to  prevent  the  allied  fleet  from  taking  possession  of  the 
stores  of  corn,  and  occupying  or  destroying  the  city  of 
Odessa?  Sevastopol,  impregnable  by  sea,  is  not — or 
was  not  two  years  ago,  and,  I  believe,  at  this  day  is 
not — defensible  on  the  land  side.  The  Bay  of  Streles- 
kaia  offers  a  convenient  landing-place  about  three 
miles  in  the  rear  of  the  fortifications  of  the  arsenal, 
where  a  Turkish  army  might  be  brought  in  two  days 
from  Constantinople  to  try  its  fortunes  with  the  Rus- 
sian force ;  or,  if  that  was  not  judged  expedient,  Se- 
vastapol  could  have  been  blockaded  till  some  advanta- 
geous terms  were  gained  for  our  ally.  Failing  this,  a 
French  army,  convoyed  and  assisted  by  their  own  and 
our  fleets,  would  have  settled  the  question  without 
doubt,  and  may  do  so  still ;  but,  unless  an  indemnity 
for  the  expenses  of  the  war  is  exacted  from  Russia  for 
her  most  unjust  and  unjustifiable  aggression,  very  lit- 
tle advantage  will  be  gained  for  Turkey,  a  great  step 


RUSSIAN    ACQUISITIONS.  1Q5 

will  have  been  accomplished  by  the  Czar,  and  the  pos- 
session of  the  Crimea  almost  insures  him  the  posses- 
sion of  Constantinople  some  day,  perhaps  at  no  very 
distant  period.  The  restoration  of  the  Crimea  to  the 
Turkish  empire  would,  I  imagine,  be  the  only  means 
of  checking  the  advance  of  Russia  in  that  direction. 
This,  accompanied  by  a  forced  treaty,  releasing  Persia 
from  her  usurious  debt,  would  restrain  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  Czar  within  certain  bounds  for  some 
years  to  come.  The  present  aspect  of  affairs  in  the 
East  becomes  more  alarming  every  day.  If  negotia- 
tions are  protracted  till  the  ice  of  the  Baltic  melts  in 
the  spring  or  early  summer,  things  will  assume  a  much 
more  grave  appearance,  and  it  will  depend  on  many 
circumstances  over  which  we  have  no  control  where 
the  conflagration  then  may  spread  and  where  the  war 
will  end. 

It  is  impossible  to  look  back  upon  the  history  of  Rus- 
sia for  the  last  150  years  without  admiration  and  as- 
tonishment at  the  enormous  strides  which  have  been 
made  by  the  giants  of  the  north  since  that  period. 
When  Peter  the  Great  acceded  to  the  throne  of  Mus- 
covy, there  was  no  maritime  outlet  to  his  empire  ex- 
cepting in  the  icy  shores  of  the  Northern  Ocean.  The 
ground  on  which  the  metropolis  of  St.  Petersburg  now 
stands  was  not  in  the  possession  of  Russia  till  the  year 
1721.  Since  the  year  1774  Russia  has  acquired,  quite 
in  the  memory  of  man,  a  territory  from  Turkey  equal 
in  extent  to  the  whole  empire  of  Austria,  and  much 
larger  than  the  present  possessions  of  the  Turks  in  Eu- 
rope. The  following  table  of  the  progress  of  the  Rus- 
sian arms  in  the  East  will  show  at  a  glance  how  rap- 


IQQ  ARMENIA. 

idly  and  steadily  she  has  extended  her  power,  her 
grasping  hand,  and  her  outstretched  arm  in  that  direc- 
tion ;  and  it  can  not  be  expected  that,  when  she  has 
rested  and  strengthened  herself,  and  consolidated  her 
resources  in  her  newly-acquired  territories,  she  will  be 
prevented  by  any  slight  obstacle  from  further  aggran- 
dizement. 

Russian  Acquisitions  from  Turkey. 

Country  to  the  north  of  the  Crimea 1774 

The  Crimea 1783 

Country  round  Odessa 1792 

Country  between  the  Sea  of  Azof  and  the  Caspian,  at 

the  same  period  as  the  Crimea 1783 

Besarabia 1812 

Russian  Acquisitions  from  Persia. 

Mingrelia,  on  the  Black  Sea 1802 

Immeritia,  the  same  year 1802 

Akalzik 1829 

Georgia 1814 

Ganja 1803 

Karabaugh 1805 

Erivan,  Mount  Ararat,  and  Etchmiazin 1828 

Sheki 1805 

Shirvan 1806 

Talish,  on  the  Caspian 1812 

Few  of  these  conquered  or  deluded  nations  have 
been  able  to  bear  the  intolerable  oppression  of  the  Rus- 
sian government,  arising  from  the  insolence  of  the  petty 
employes,  and  more  particularly  the  dreadful  scourge 
of  the  conscription,  by  the  aid  of  which,  at  any  mo- 
ment, children  are  remorselessly  torn  forever  from  their 
parents,  whose  sole  support  they  were ;  families  are  on 
a  sudden  divided ;  one  half  sent  off  no  one  knows 
whither,  never  to  meet  again ;  none  of  these  unhappy 
slaves  knowing  whether  it  will  be  their  lot  to  become 


ARMENIAN    EMIGRATION.  ^§7 


soldiers  or  sailors,  but,  in  either  case,  they  are  driven 
off,  like  beasts,  in  flocks,  by  cruel,  savage  tyrants,  who 
steal,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  money  provided  by 
the  superior  government  for  the  food  of  the  despairing 
conscripts,  while  they  —  brutal  and  drunken  though 
they  may  be — are  distinguished  for  their  love  of  home, 
and  the  affection  and  respect  they  bear  for  their  pa- 
rents. 

The  Nogai  Tatars  abandoned  the  Christian  religion, 
and  took  refuge  in  the  territories  of  the  Khan  of  the 
Crimea,  becoming  Mohammedans  in  hopes  of  obtain- 
ing the  protection  of  the  milder  rule  of  Turkey. 

In  1771  a  still  more  extraordinary  event  took  place. 
The  Kalmuks,  a  people  who  had  emigrated  from  the 
frontiers  of  China,  unable  to  endure  the  insults  and 
oppressions  of  the  Russian  tyranny,  made  up  their 
minds  to  return  to  the  dominions  of  the  Celestial  Em- 
pire, from  whence  their  ancestors  had  originally  come. 
They  fought  their  way  through  all  the  hostile  tribes 
intervening  between  them,  and  their  whole  nation  ar- 
rived safely  under  the  wing  of  the  Emperor  of  China, 
who  afforded  them  protection,  and  gave  them  great 
tracts  of  land  for  the  pasture  of  their  flocks  and  herds. 
The  embassador  of  the  impress  Catharine,  who  had 
been  dispatched  to  desire  the  surrender  of  the  fugitive 
tribe,  and — as  at  this  day  in  Turkey — to  demand  a 
"  renewal  of  treaties"  between  the  two  countries,  re- 
ceived the  following  answer  from  the  court  of  Pekin : 
"  Let  your  mistress  learn  to  keep  old  treaties,  and  then 
it  will  be  time  to  apply  for  new  ones;"  an  answer 
which  might  have  been  given  in  our  day  to  Prince 
Menschikoff,  who  was  lucky  in  meeting  with  a  milder 


188  ARMENIA. 


reception  at  Constantinople  than  his  predecessor  re- 
ceived from  the  stout  old  mandarin  at  Pekin. 

In  the  year  1829,  Kars,  Bayazeed,  Van,  Moush,  Er- 
zeroom,  and  Beyboort  (which  is  coming  very  near) 
were  occupied  by  the  Russians,  who  evacuated  that 
portion  of  the  Turkish  empire  on  the  conclusion  of  the 
treaty  of  Adrianople.  Trusting  to  the  protestations  of 
a  Christian  emperor,  sixty-nine  thousand  Christian 
Armenian  families  were  beguiled  into  the  folly  of  leav- 
ing Mohammedan  dominions,  and  sitting  in  peace  under 
the  paternal  protection  of  the  Czar.  Over  their  ruin- 
ed houses  I  have  ridden,  and  surveyed  with  sorrow 
their  ancient  churches  in  the  valleys  of  Armenia,  dese- 
crated and  injured,  as  far  as  their  solid  construction 
permitted,  by  the  sacrilegious  hands  of  the  Russian 
soldiers,  who  tried  to  destroy  those  temples  of  their 
own  religion  which  the  Turks  had  spared,  and  under 
whose  rule  many  of  the  more  recent  had  been  rebuilt 
on  their  old  foundations.  The  greater  part  of  these 
Armenians  perished  from  want  and  starvation ;  the 
few  who  survived  this  sharp  lesson  have  since  been 
endeavoring,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  to  return 
to  the  lesser  evils  of  the  frying-pan  of  Turkey,  from 
whence  they  had  leaped  into  the  fire  of  despotic  Russia. 

By  the  treaty  of  Turkomanchai,  1828,  thajCzarJifi*— 
came  possessed  of  Persian  Armenia,  of  which  the  capi- 
tal is  Erivan.  In  this  district  are  contained  the  two 
great  objects  of  Armenian  veneration,  Etchmiazin  and 
Mount  Ararat.  This  noble  snowy  mountain  takes  the 
place,  in  the  estimation  of  the  Armenians,  that  Mount 
Sinai  and  Mount  Zion  do  amone:  the  followers  of  other 
Christian  sects.     The  foolish  legends  which  disgrace 


THE   ARMENIAN    PATRIARCH.  ^39 

the  purity  of  true  religion  usually  relate  to  the  object 
of  local  tradition  which  may  be  met  with  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  monastery  ;  consequently  an  attack  of 
indigestion  in  an  Armenian  monk  generally  produces 
a  vision  of  some  nonsensical  revelation  about  Noah's 
ark,  which  is  still  supposed  to  remain,  hidden  to  mor- 
tal eye,  under  the  clouds  and  snows  of  Mount  Ararat. 
Etchmiazin  is  an  ancient  fortified  monastery,  with- 
in whose  walls  resides  the  Patriarch  of  the  Armenian 
Church,  the  spiritual  head  of  that  body,  and  who  is 
looked  up  to  indeed  as  the  temporal  chief  of  that  scat- 
tered nation  whose  industrious  children  are  settled  in 
India,  Constantinople,  and  in  many  other  parts  of  the 
world,  so  that  those  who  live  and  thrive  abroad  are 
much  more  numerous  and  more  wealthy  than  those  who 
reside  in  Armenia  itself.  The  possession,  therefore,  of 
the  person  and  residence  of  the  Patriarch  is  a  fact  of 
no  small  importance  in  the  history  of  Russian  advance- 
ment. To  undertake  a  pilgrimage  to  Etchmiazin  is  a 
meritorious  act  among  the  professors  of  the  Armenian 
faith ;  and  the  influence  exercised  over  the  Patriarch 
is  diffused,  through  the  obedient  medium  of  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  through  all  parts  of  Turkey,  and 
many  of  the  cities  of  India,  to  an  extent  which  would 
surprise  those  who  never  have  troubled  themselves 
with  the  affairs  of  the  Armenian  jeweler  or  silver- 
smith in  an  Eastern  bazaar,  for  they  are  almost  invari- 
ably dealers  in  jewels  and  precious  metals  ;  or  serafs, 
bankers,  among  the  .  native  population ;  a  position 
which  renders  their  influence  of  no  small  consequence 
in  every  city  where  they  reside.  By  these  means, 
among  others,  the  political  interest  of  the  Czar  is  nour- 


190  ARMENIA. 


ished  and  extended  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  at  Bom- 
bay, Bushire,  Madras,  and  many  another  place,  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  sway  and  power  of  the  Roman 
pontiff  is  upheld,  and  that  by  no  weak  and  trembling 
hand,  in  Ireland,  England,  London,  and  the  House  of 
Commons.  And  yet  we  pretend  that  there  is  no  such 
power  as  the  See  of  Rome  ;  we  ignore  the  existence  of 
the  Pope,  and  sneer  at  the  prince  of  a  petty  Italian 
state  supported  by  French  bayonets,  who  is  in  that 
rotten  and  decaying  state  that  we  or  our  children  are 
to  see  his  end. 

But  my  belief  is,  that  the  power  of  Rome  is  by  no 
means  in  a  falling  state,  nor  would  it  be  so  even  if 
the  rule  of  some  band  of  miscreants  usurped  for  a  lit- 
tle while  the  misgovernment  of  the  Eternal  City.  The 
power  of  the  Pope  is  now,  at  this  moment,  one  of  the 
greatest  upon  the  earth ;  and  as  irreligion  and  dissent 
increase,  so  will  the  most  wonderfully  clever  institu- 
tion of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Roman  Church  in- 
crease. Its  minute  and  marvelous  organization,  the 
perfect  understanding  and  subordination  of  the  inferior 
to  the  superior  officer,  its  fixed  and  certain  purpose, 
give  the  Pope  the  command  over  such  a  united  and 
well-disciplined  army  of  trained  and  fearless  soldiers 
as  never  could  be  brought  together  by  Caesar,  or  Na- 
poleon, or  our  own  old  Duke.  The  peace  of  Europe  in 
this  direction  arises  not  from  the  slightest  want  of 
power  or  means  on  the  part  of  the  See  of  Rome,  but 
from  the  jealousy  of  the  body  in  whose  hands  the  elec- 
tion of  the  Supreme  Pontiff  lies.  For  many  years  they 
have  elected  a  good  old  monk,  who  has  passed  his 
whole  life  in  a  state  of  supreme  ignorance  of  the  world 


LATENT   POWER   OF   THE   POPE.         \<Ql 

in  general,  and  the  whole  art  of  government  in  partic- 
ular. In  his  hands  the  mighty  power  at  his  command 
remains  inert — a  slumbering  volcano.  But  should  the 
ivory  chair  of  St.  Peter  ever  sustain  the  weight  of  a 
young  and  energetic  man  of  genius,  with  some  years 
of  life  before  him,  no  one  would  laugh  at  the  tottering 
state  of  Rome. 

As  for  the  petty  principality  of  a  state  in  Italy,  I 
have  been  told,  in  the  Pope's  own  ante-room,  that  it  is 
a  burden  to  him.  His  extended  sway  does  not  depend 
on  the  doubtful  loyalty  of  half  a  dozen  regiments  of 
Italians,  or  on  the  more  honest  obedience  of  two  or 
three  thousand  Swiss  guards,  but  on  the  hearts  and 
hands  of  many  millions,  who  look  up  to  him  as  their 
spiritual  superior  at  all  times,  and  their  temporal  supe- 
rior, whom  they  are  bound  to  obey  in  opposition  to  all 
other  sovereigns,  when  any  thing  occurs  "  ad  majorem 
Dei  gloriam,"  and  for  the  advancement  of  the  Church 
of  Rome. 

A  power  such  as  this,  which  in  our  trafficking  and 
money-making  country  is  thought  little  of — a  power 
such  as  this  lies  dormant  in  the  hands  of  the  Grand 
Lama  of  Thibet,  whose  followers  form  almost  half  of 
all  mankind — in  those  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantino- 
ple—and to  an  inferior  degree  in  those  of  the  Patriarch 
of  Etchmiazin.  They  are  all  paralyzed  and  quiescent 
from  the  same  cause,  namely,  that  the  chiefs  of  these 
mighty  institutions  are  old,  ignorant  men,  whose  minds 
have  not  the  energy,  or  their  hands  the  power,  to  work 
the  tremendous  engine  committed  to  their  care.  That 
the  Czar  is  perfectly  aware  of  the  uses  to  be  made  of 
the  religious  feelings  of  the  inhabitants  of  other  gov- 


192  ARMENIA. 


ernments  to  further  his  own  ends,  we  see  from  the  nu- 
merous magnificent  presents  ostentatiously  forwarded 
by  him  to  churches  in  Greece  and  Turkey,  where  the 
monks  and  priests  by  these  means  are  gained  over  to 
his  interests.  From  his  generous  hand,  extended  to 
the  borders  of  the  Adriatic,  about  £5000  are  annually 
dropped  into  the  poor-box  of  that  truculent  specimen 
of  the  church  militant,  the  Yladica  of  Montenegro. 
But  the  Czar  is  not  an  aged  monk ;  he  is  not  wanting 
in  energy  or  strength ;  and  he  will  not  fail  to  pull  the 
strings  which  hang  loosely  in  the  hands  of  the  Arme- 
nian patriarch.  If  he  pulls  them  evenly  and  well,  he 
will  advance  his  interests  far  and  wide,  even  in  the  do- 
minions of  other  princes,  who  may  hardly  be  aware  of 
the  influence  exercised  in  their  states  from  a  source  so 
distant  and  unobtrusive.  The  danger  in  his  case  is, 
that  he  may  use  too  great  violence,  and  break  the 
strings  from  too  severe  a  tension,  raising  the  storm 
against  himself  which  he  intended  to  direct  against 
others.  However  this  may  be,  the  power  of  which  he 
holds  the  reins  is  one  which  may  be  used  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  greatest  or  the  most  ignoble  ends. 
For  the  mo«t  sublime  and  glorious  actions,  the  most 
heroic  and  the  most  infernal  deeds  that  have  ever  been 
accomplished  by  mankind,  have  been  occasioned  by  the 
awakening  of  religious  zeal,  or  by  the  fanaticism  of  re- 
ligious hatred,  from  the  earliest  days,  when  the  pen  of 
history  was  first  dipped  in  blood. 

Nothing  can  be  more  anomalous  than  the  present  as- 
pect of  religious  questions.  The  Christian  Emperor 
of  Russia  is  at  this  moment  exciting  the  minds  of  his 
subjects  to  make  war  upon  the  infidel ;  and  his  armies 


ASPECT  OF  RELIGIOUS  QUESTIONS.  193 

march  under  the  impression  that  they  undertake  a  new 
crusade.  Yet  this  crusade  is  carried  on  in  direct  con- 
tradiction to  truth,  justice,  honor,  and  every  principle 
of  the  Christian  religion,  whose  pure  and  sacred  pre- 
cepts are  violated  at  every  turn.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Mohammedan,  or  infidel,  as  he  is  called,  displays, 
under  the  most  difficult  and  insulting  circumstances, 
the  highest  Christian  virtues  of  integrity,  moderation, 
and  strict  adherence  to  his  word  in  treaties  granted  by 
himself  or  his  predecessors ;  at  the  same  time,  the  ar- 
mies of  the  upright  Sultan  are  commanded  by  a  Chris- 
tian renegade  who  has  abjured  his  faith,  and  yet  he 
fights  against  the  Christian  power  in  a  righteous  cause. 

The  terrible  revolution  which  is  the  cause  of  such 
awful  scenes  of  bloodshed  and  atrocities  in  China  is 
carried  on  under  the  name  of  our  merciful  and  just 
Savior,  whose  mild  religion  these  rebels  against  their 
sovereign  affect  to  follow. 

The  savage  atrocities  of  the  Holy  Inquisition,  the 
cruel  massacres  by  the  Spaniards  in  America,  were 
perpetrated  by  men  who  made  a  cloak  of  the  benevo- 
lent precepts  of  the  Grospel  for  the  perpetration  of  the 
most  brutal  crimes. 

Those  times  we  thought  were  past,  but  human  na- 
ture is  the  same ;  and  where  the  light  of  true  Chris- 
tianity has  penetrated,  we  find  a  period  of  wonderful 
intelligence  and  appreciation  of  the  truths  of  the  doc- 
trines of  our  Lord  in  some  places  ;  in  others,  where  a 
nominal  Christianity  alone  prevails,  actions  are  com- 
mitted by  men  in  the  highest  stations  which  would  dis- 
grace the  records  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

I 


194  ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Ecclesiastical  History. — Supposed  Letter  of  Abgarus,  King  of  Edessa, 
to  our  Savior,  and  the  Answer. — Promulgation  and  Establishment 
of  Christianity. — Labors  of  Mesrob  Maschdots. — Separation  of  the 
Armenian  Church  from  that  of  Constantinople. — Hierarchy  and  re- 
ligious Establishments. — Superstition  of  the  Lower  Classes. — Sac- 
erdotal Vestments.  —  The  Holy  Books.  —  Romish  Branch  of  the 
Church. — Labors  of  Mechitar. — His  Establishment  near  Venice. — 
Diffusion  of  the  Scriptures. 

The  ruins  of  Ani  to  this  day  attest  the  magnificence 
and  antiquity  of  former  dynasties  which  long  since 
reigned  and  passed  away  in  the  highlands  of  Armenia. 
In  the  time  of  Cyrus,  according  to  Moses  of  Chorene, 
the  historian  of  that  country  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
Greek  statues  of  Jupiter,  Artemis  (Diana),  Minerva, 
Hephaestion,  and  Yenus,  were  brought  to  Ani  and 
placed  in  the  citadel  of  that  town.  Here  the  treasures 
and  the  sepulchres  of  the  ancient  kings  were  preserved 
in  a  fortress  deemed  by  them  impregnable.  I  will  not 
pause  to  disentangle  the  records  of  Armenia  before  the 
time  of  our  Savior,  for  even  during  the  life  of  our  Lord 
the  annals  of  Armenia  become  remarkably  interesting 
as  connected  with  his  holy  faith,  and  the  rise  and  prog- 
ress of  Christianity  in  the  countries  immediately  ad- 
joining the  sacred  soil  of  Palestine.  Abgarus,  king  of 
Edessa,  and  sovereign  of  great  part  of  Armenia,  with 
the  adjoining  countries,  is  said  by  Eusebius,  bishop  of 
Csesarea,  the  early  historian  of  the  Church,  who  flour- 
ished in  the  fourth  centurv,  to  have  written  a  letter  to 


LEGEND    OF   ABGARUS.  ^95 

our  Savior,  requesting  him  to  repair  to  his  court  and 
to  cure  him  of  a  disease  under  which  he  labored.  The 
following  is  a  translation  of  the  letter  which  Abgarus 
is  said  to  have  written  to  our  Lord : 

"  Abgarus,  King  of  Edessa,  to  Jesus  the  good  Sav- 
ior, who  appeareth  at  Jerusalem,  greeting : 

"  I  have  been  informed  concerning  thee  and  thy 
cures,  which  are  performed  without  the  use  of  medi- 
cines or  of  herbs. 

"  For  it  is  reported  that  thou  dost  cause  the  blind  to 
see,  the  lame  to  walk,  that  thou  dost  cleanse  the  lep- 
ers, and  dost  cast  out  unclean  spirits  and  devils,  and 
dost  restore  to  health  those  who  have  been  long  dis- 
eased, and  also  that  thou  dost  raise  the  dead. 

"All  which  when  I  heard  I  was  persuaded  of  one 
of  these  two  things  : 

"  Either  that  thou  art  Grod  himself  descended  from 
heaven ; 

"  Or  that  thou  art  the  Son  of  Grod. 

"  On  this  account,  therefore,  I  have  written  unto 
thee,  earnestly  desiring  that  thou  wouldst  trouble  thy- 
self to  take  a  journey  hither,  and  that  thou  wilt  also 
cure  me  of  the  disease  under  which  I  suffer. 

"  For  I  fear  that  the  Jews  hold  thee  in  derision,  and 
intend  to  do  thee  harm. 

"  My  city  is  indeed  small,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  con- 
tain us  both." 

In  the  history  of  Moses  of  Chorene,  this  letter  begins 
with  the  words  "Abgar,  the  son  of  Archam,"  but  the 
substance  of  it  is  the  same  as  the  above,  which  is  taken 
from  the  pages  of  Eusebius,  who  lived  a  century  ear- 
lier than  Moses  of  Chorene,     This  author  ascribes  the 


196  ARMENIA. 


answer  to  St.  Thomas  the  Apostle,  who  was  deputed 
to  write  an  answer  to  the  above  in  these  words : 

"Happy  art  thou,  0  Abgarus,  forasmuch  as  thou 
hast  believed  in  me  whom  thou  hast  not  seen. 

"  For  it  is  written  concerning  me,  that  those  who 
have  seen  me  have  not  believed  on  me,  that  those  who 
have  not  seen  me  might  believe  and  live. 

"As  to  that  part  of  thine  epistle  which  relates  to 
my  visiting  thee,  I  must  inform  thee  that  I  must  ful- 
fill the  ends  of  my  mission  in  this  land,  and  after  that 
be  received  up  again  unto  Him  that  sent  me ;  but  after 
my  ascension  I  will  send  one  of  my  disciples,  who  will 
cure  thy  disease,  and  give  life  unto  thee  and  all  that 
are  with  thee." 

These  two  letters  are  generally  considered  to  be  for- 
geries, although  they  are  mentioned  by  some  of  the 
earliest  historians  of  the  Church. 

Some  years  ago  I  was  informed,  while  at  Alexan- 
dria, that  a  papyrus  had  been  discovered  in  Upper 
Egypt,  in  an  ancient  tomb ;  it  was  inclosed  in  a  coarse 
earthenware  vase,  and  it  contained  the  letter  from  Ab- 
garus to  our  Savior,  written  either  in  Coptic  or  uncial 
Greek  characters.  The  answer  of  St.  Thomas  was 
said  not  to  be  with  it.  I  was  told  that  the  manuscript 
afterward  came  into  the  possession  of  the  King  of  Hol- 
land, but  I  have  no  means  at  present  of  ascertaining 
the  truth  of  the  story,  or  the  antiquity  of  the  papyrus 
of  which  it  forms  the  subject. 

The  seeds  of  the  Christian  faith  were  sown  in  Ar- 
menia by  the  apostles  St.  Bartholomew  and  St.  Thom- 
as. According  to  Tertullian  (adv.  Judaeos,  c.  7),  a 
Christian  Church  flourished  there  in  the  second  cen- 


ST.  GREGORY  THE  ILLUMINATOR.   197 

tury.  St.  Blaise  and  other  bishops  suffered  martyr- 
dom in  different  parts  of  Armenia  during  the  persecu- 
tion of  Diocletian,  about  the  year  310. 

To  St.  Gregory,  the  Illuminator,  is  due  the  honor  of 
having  established  Christianity  in  this  region,  and  he 
is  known  by  the  title  of  the  Apostle  of  Armenia.  To- 
ward the  middle  of  the  third  century,  having  been 
himself  a  convert  from  Paganism,  he  first  preached 
the  doctrines  of  our  Lord  among  the  mountains  of  his 
native  land.  He  had  received  his  education  at  Caesa- 
rea  in  Cappadocia,  where  he  was  baptized.  The  zeal 
with  which  he  was  animated  gave  irresistible  force  to 
his  words,  and  the  people  flocked  to  him  in  great  mul- 
titudes, and  were  baptized  by  his  hands.  The  King 
Tiridates,  a  violent  persecutor  of  the  Christians,  touch- 
ed by  the  piety  and  virtues  of  St.  Gregory,  embraced 
the  Christian  faith,  and,  with  his  queen  and  his  sister, 
received  the  sacrament  of  baptism  in  the  16th  year  of 
his  reign,  A.D.  274,  and  became  the  first  Christian 
King  of  Armenia.  St.  Gregory  was  consecrated  bish- 
op by  St.  Leontius,  Bishop  of  Caesarea,  in  Cappadocia, 
and  continued  his  labors  in  propagating  the  faith  all 
over  Armenia,  Georgia,  and  the  nations  living  on  the 
borders  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  From  this  circumstance 
it  became  the  custom  for  the  Primate  of  Armenia  to 
receive  his  consecration  from  the  Archbishop  of  Caesa- 
rea, which  continued  to  be  the  practice  for  several  cen- 
turies. St.  Gregory  died  in  the  year  336,  in  a  cave  to 
which  he  had  retired,  desiring  to  end  his  days  as  an 
anchorite,  according  to  a  custom  much  observed  in  the 
fourth  century. 

In  those  disturbed  and  unsettled  times,  the  religion 


198  ARMENIA. 


of  our  Savior  alternately  rose  and  prospered,  or  was 
oppressed  by  the  persecutions  of  various  governors  un- 
der the  Emperors  of  Rome.  Numerous  heresies  dis- 
tracted the  minds  of  the  priesthood,  and  confused  the 
doctrines  of  the  Armenian  Church.  About  the  year 
390  rose  the  most  celebrated  man  in  the  history  of  this 
country :  his  name  was  Mesrob  Maschdots.  This  per- 
sonage was  born  in  the  town  of  Hatsegatz-Avan,  in  the 
province  of  Daron :  he  had  been  secretary  to  the  Patri- 
arch Narses,  and  to  the  Prince  Yarastad,  who  was  de- 
throned by  the  Romans  in  the  year  382.  In  the  year 
390,  in  conjunction  with  the  Armenian  Patriarch  Sa- 
hag,  he  occupied  himself  in  the  extinction  of  the  idol- 
atry which  still  prevailed,  and  was  the  first  person  who 
arranged  the  forms  of  the  Armenian  liturgy.  Before 
this  time  the  Armenian  language  had  no  written  char- 
acter ;  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  districts  used  the 
Persian  alphabet,  while  those  of  the  west  wrote  in  the 
Syriac  character.  Mesrob  either  restored  the  ancient 
Armenian  letters  according  to  the  historian  Moses  of 
Chorene,  who  gives  a  long  miraculous  account  of  the 
event,  or  he  invented  an  entirely  new  alphabet — a  sol- 
itary instance,  I  believe,  of  such  an  undertaking  hav- 
ing been  accomplished  by  one  man.  The  present  Ar- 
menian letters  were  adopted  by  the  commands  of  Bah- 
rain Schahpoor  over  the  whole  of  that  country  in  the 
year  406.  The  first  complete  version  of  the  Bible  was 
now  arranged  and  promulgated  by  Mesrob,  and  writ- 
ten on  parchment  in  his  new  characters ;  numerous 
copies  of  it  were  distributed  to  the  churches  and  mon- 
asteries of  Armenia,  and  the  important  circumstance 
of  their  being  now  able  to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures  in 


THE    CHURCH   AND   HIERARCHY.         199 

their  own  language  tended  to  preserve  their  faith,  and 
to  unite  them  as  a  nation  during  the  continual  troubles 
and  adversities  which  they  have  suffered  ever  since. 
This  great  benefactor  to  his  country  died  in  the  year 
441. 

The  Armenian  hierarchy  had  till  now  been  a  branch 
of  the  Greek  Church,  but,  unable  to  read  their  liturgy, 
troubled  with  diversities  of  opinion,  and  oppressed  first 
by  one  neighboring  tyrant  and  then  by  another,  this 
helpless  nation  finally  settled  down  into  the  heresy  of 
Eutyches,  and,  under  the  guidance  of  their  patriarch, 
separated  themselves  from  the  Church  of  Constanti- 
nople. They  believe  that  the  body  of  our  Savior  was 
created,  or  else  existed  without  creation,  a  divine  and 
incorruptible  substance,  not  subject  to  the  infirmities 
of  the  flesh.  This  schism  took  place  about  the  year 
535. 

The  Armenian  era  commences  in  the  year  552,  from 
which  epoch  their  manuscripts  and  calendar  are  dated. 
The  custom  continues  to  the  present  day.  By  the 
council  of  Tibena  in  554,  they  were  confirmed  in  their 
persistence  in  the  Eutychian  heresy.  The  council  of 
Trullo,  692,  and  the  council  of  Jerusalem,  1143,  con- 
demned the  errors  of  the  Armenians.  In  the  four- 
teenth century,  Pope  John  XXII.  sent  a  Dominican 
friar,  called  Bartholomew  the  Little,  into  that  distant 
region,  with  several  colleagues,  to  preach  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Bartholomew  was  conse- 
crated bishop  (of  Nakchevan  ?),  and  since  that  time  the 
archbishop  of  that  province  has,  with  all  his  depend- 
encies, continued  a  member  of  the  Roman  Church. 
The  thunders  of  the  Lateran  have  often  since  been  di- 


200  ARMENIA. 


rected  against  the  perseverance  of  these  distant  here- 
tics, but  they  have  been  of  no  avail. 

The  Patriarch  of  Armenia  resides  at  Etchmiazin. 
He  is  styled  Catholicos,  and  holds  under  his  sway  for- 
ty-seven archbishops,  of  whom  the  greater  part  are  tit- 
ular, having  no  jurisdiction  or  dignity  beyond  their  ti- 
tles ;  many  of  these  reside  in  the  monastery,  and  form 
a  sort  of  court  around  their  spiritual  lord  the  Patriarch. 
They  seem  to  hold  the  same  position  as  the  Monsign- 
ores  of  the  court  of  Rome.  Above  the  titular  and  act- 
ual archbishops  are  three  Patriarchs,  whose  seats  are 
at  Jerusalem,  Constantinople,  and  Diarbekir.  The 
number  of  bishops  and  episcopal  sees  is  very  consider- 
able, but  I  have  not  been  able  to  enumerate  them. 
The  monasteries  are  also  very  numerous,  and  are  scat- 
tered all  over  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  the  islands 
of  Lake  Van,  and  other  places  in  Persia,  Georgia,  and 
Turkey. 

The  ancient  monasteries  of  their  own  land  are  of  a 
peculiar  construction,  remarkable  for  the  diminutive 
proportions  of  the  churches  and  the  small  size  of  the 
monastic  buildings,  as  well  as  their  massive  strength 
and  the  great  squared  stones  of  which  they  are  built. 
They  are  little  fortresses,  and  seem  always  to  have 
been  very  poor,  though  some  are  larger  and  more 
wealthy,  comparatively,  than  the  generality.  They 
have  been  erected  to  resist  the  incursions  of  the  Sara- 
cens, Knights  Templars,  Koords,  Turks,  and  Persians, 
who,  from  time  to  time,  overran  this  abject  principal- 
ity. Their  massive  strength  alone  has  saved  them 
from  being  pulled  down  and  utterly  destroyed;  the 
time  necessary  for  such  an  operation  could  not  be 


IGNORANCE    AND    SUPERSTITION.      £()1 

spared  during  the  inroad  of  a  chappow,  or  plundering 
expedition.  Nothing  worth  stealing  remains  in  the 
various  monasteries  which  I  have  visited.  A  few  dirty 
and  imperfect  church-books,  some  faded  vestments  and 
poor  furniture  for  the  altar,  and  the  cells  of  three  or 
four  peasant-monks,  were  all  the  wealth  that  they  dis- 
played. Very  few  appear  to  have  contained  a  library 
— none  that  I  have  seen.  Their  manuscripts  were 
written  in  former  days  at  Edessa,  Etchmiazin  (which 
is  a  more  extensive  fabric),  Teflis,  Ooroomia,  Tabriz,  and 
other  cities,  and  not  usually  in  these  outposts  among 
the  mountains.  The  little  monastery  of  Kuzzul  Vank 
possesses  one  ancient  manuscript  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, written  in  the  year,  as  far  as  I  can  remember, 
422,  which,  if  it  refers  to  the  Armenian  era,  would  be 
974 ;  it  is  written  in  uncial  letters,  on  vellum,  in  a 
small,  thict  quarto  form. 

Ignorance  and  superstition  contend  for  the  mastery 
among  the  lower  classes  of  Armenia,  whose  religion 
shows  that  tendency  to  sink  into  a  kind  of  idolatry 
which  is  common  among  other  branches  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  warmer  climates.  The  following  anecdote 
will  explain  my  meaning  in  advancing  such  a  charge. 
One  of  my  servants  had  a  bad  toothache ;  he  was  a 
Roman  Catholic  of  Smyrna ;  he  made  a  vow  to  pre- 
sent an  offering  to  the  shrine  of  St.  George  at  Smyrna 
if  his  toothache  was  cured  by  the  mediation  of  that 
saint,  but  the  pain  still  continued.  A  friend  of  his  at 
Erzeroom  advised  him  to  vow  a  silver  mouth  to  St. 
George  of  Erzeroom ;  "  for,"  he  said,  "  St.  George  of 
Smyrna  is  a  Roman  saint,  and,  of  course,  he  can  have 
no  authority  here ;  but  our  St.  George  is  an  Armenian, 

12 


202  ARMENIA. 


and  he  will  hear  your  prayer."  The  advice  was  taken : 
a  silver  mouth  was  vowed  to  St.  George  of  Erzeroom, 
and  the  toothache  ceased  immediately,  the  servant 
firmly  believing  that  he  had  been  cured  by  this  saint, 
who,  he  considered,  was  another  person,  and  not  the 
same  as  St.  George  of  Smyrna,  and  that  his  picture 
here  was  more  powerful  in  working  miracles  than  the 
others.  In  the  same  manner,  the  pictures  or  images 
of  Our  Lady  of  Loretto,  Guadaloupe,  or  del  Pilar  are 
believed  to  be  endowed  with  peculiar  powers,  and  are, 
in  fact,  worshiped  for  their  own  merits,  and  not  for 
what  they  represent. 

A  curious  episode  in  the  history  of  Armenia  took 
place  in  the  time  of  Shah  Abbas  the  Great,  who  estab- 
lished a  colony  of  the  natives  of  that  province  at  Julfa, 
a  village  near  Isfahaun.  He  gave  them  many  privi- 
leges and  immunities,  which  a  remnant  of  their  de- 
scendants enjoy  still.  The  forms  and  ceremonies  of 
their  worship  resemble  those  of  the  Greek  Church,  from 
which  they  are  derived.  Their  vestments  are  the  same, 
or  nearly  so :  and  here  I  will  remark  that  the  sacred 
vestures  of  the  Christian  Church  are  the  same,  with 
very  insignificant  modifications,  among  every  denom- 
ination of  Christians  in  the  world  ;  that  they  have  al- 
ways been  the  same,  and  never  were  otherwise  in  any 
country,  from  the  remotest  times  when  we  have  any 
written  accounts  of  them,  or  any  mosaics,  sculptures, 
or  pictures  to  explain  their  forms.  They  are  no  more 
a  Popish  invention,  or  have  any  thing  more  to  do  with 
the  Roman  Church,  than  any  other  usage  which  is 
common  to  all  denominations  of  Christians.  They  are, 
and  always  have  been,  of  general  and  universal — that 


PARISH   PRIESTS.  — DOCTRINE.  20Z 

is,  of  catholic — use ;  they  have  never  been  used  for 
many  centuries  for  ornament  or  dress  by  the  laity, 
having  been  considered  as  set  apart  to  be  used  only  by 
priests  in  the  church  during  the  celebration  of  the  wor- 
ship of  Almighty  God.  These  ancient  vestures  have 
been  worn  by  the  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  of  that, 
in  common  with  the  hierarchy  of  every  other  Church. 
In  England  they  have  fallen  into  disuse  by  neglect; 
King  Charles  I.  presented  some  vestments  to  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Durham  long  after  the  Reformation,  and  they 
continued  in  use  there  almost  in  the  memory  of  man. 

The  parish  priests  of  the  Armenian  religion  are,  I 
believe,  permitted,  if  not  obliged,  to  marry,  as  is  the 
case  in  the  G-reek  and  Russian  Churches  ;  but  they 
can  not,  so  long  as  their  wife  survives,  be  promoted  to 
any  of  the  higher  orders  of  the  hierarchy.  Bishops, 
archbishops,  and  patriarchs  are  elected  out  of  the  mo- 
nastic bodies  who  take  the  vows  of  celibacy ;  their  fasts 
are  long  and  rigorous,  their  food  simple,  and  their  style 
of  life  severe ;  their  time  is  almost  entirely  taken  up 
with  the  services  of  religion,  and,  as  a  general  rule, 
their  ignorance  is  extreme. 

In  their  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  they  believe 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from  the  Father  alone  ; 
that  Christ  descended  into  hell,  from  whence  he  re- 
prieved the  souls  of  sinners  till  the  day  of  judgment ; 
that  the  souls  of  the  righteous  will  not  be  admitted  to 
the  beatific  vision  till  after  the  resurrection,  notwith- 
standing which  they  invoke  them  in  their  prayers. 
They  make  use  of  pictures  in  their  churches,  but  not 
of  images  ;  they  use  confession  to  the  priests,  and  ad- 
minister the  Eucharist  in  both  kinds. 


204  ARMENIA. 


In  baptism  they  plunge  the  child  three  times  in 
water,  apply  the  chrism  with  consecrated  oil  prepared 
only  by  the  Patriarch.  They  also  touch  the  child's 
lips  with  the  Eucharist,  which  consists  of  unleavened 
bread  sopped  in  wine. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  contain  more  books  than  those 
of  the  Western  Churches.  In  the  Old  Testament,  after 
the  Book  of  Genesis,  occurs  The  Testament  of  the 
Twelve  Patriarchs,  the  Sons  of  Jacob ;  then  The  His- 
tory of  Joseph  and  of  his  wife  Asenath ;  The  Book  of 
Jesus  the  Son  of  Sirach.  After  these  the  order  of  the 
scriptural  books  succeeds  as  with  us.  In  the  New 
Testament,  after  St.  Paul's  Second  Epistle  to  the  Co- 
rinthians, we  find  the  Epistle  of  the  Corinthians  to  St. 
Paul,  which  is  followed  by  St.  Paul's  Third  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians.  The  remainder  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  the  same  as  ours. 

The  Testament  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  and  the 
Book  of  Jesus  the  Son  of  Sirach,  are  well  known ;  but 
I  am  not  aware  that  the  Book  of  Asenath  has  been 
printed  in  any  European  language.  This  curious  book 
was  translated  into  Italian,  from  an  ancient  Armenian 
manuscript  of  the  Bible  in  my  possession,  by  an  Arme- 
nian friend,  and  translated  from  the  Italian  into  En- 
glish by  myself:  this  I  presume  to  be  the  only  copy 
of  the  Book  of  Asenath  in  the  English  language.  It 
is  a  work  of  Considerable  length,  and  is  interesting,  not 
only  from  the  place  it  holds  in  the  estimation  of  a  nu- 
merous body  of  Christians,  but  also  from  the  picture 
it  presents  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  Egypt,  at 
some  remote  period  when  it  was  written.  Several  pas- 
sages in  it  indicate  that  it  must  have  been  composed 


LORD   BYRON   A  TRANSLATOR.  205 

when  what  may  be  called  the  classic  style  of  life  was 
still  in  use.  Whether  it  was  included  among  the  num- 
ber of  the  sacred  books  collected  by  Mesrob  I  do  not 
know :  in  that  case  it  would  date  as  far  back  as  the 
fourth  century  after  Christ,  a  period  prolific  in  apoc- 
ryphal books,  several  of  which  were  forged  about  that 
time  to  support  the  authority  of  the  various  heresiarchs 
who  promulgated  their  opinions  in  many  countries  of 
the  East,  and  who,  being  unable  to  produce  texts  from 
the  accepted  books  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  which 
would  prove  the  truth  of  their  doctrines,  invented  others 
more  suitable  to  their  own  purposes,  and  written  more 
in  accordance  with  their  views. 

The  Epistle  from  the  Corinthians  to  St.  Paul,  and 
the  answer  from  the  great  apostle,  is  of  a  higher  class, 
and  bears  much  resemblance  to  his  other  Epistles.  It 
has  been  published  among  Lord  Byron's  works.  He 
took  a  few  lessons  in  Armenian  from  Father  Pasquale 
Aucher,  a  monk  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Lazarus,  at 
Venice,  a  man  of  extraordinary  learning,  who  speaks 
most  of  the  European  languages,  as  well  as  Turkish, 
Armenian,  and  other  Oriental  tongues.  He  translated 
these  Epistles  into  English,  with  the  assistance  of  Lord 
Byron. 

The  Roman  Catholic  branch  of  the  Armenian  Church 
has  done  much  more  for  literature  and  civilization  than 
the  original  body.  Few  Catholics  are  found  in  Arme- 
nia itself,  excepting  at  Erzeroom  and  other  cities, 
where  a  remnant  remain,  while  at  Constantinople  a 
great  number  of  the  higher  and  wealthier  Armenians 
give  their  adherence  to  that  creed.  Their  minds  are 
more  enlarged,  they  are  less  Oriental  in  their  ideas,  be- 


206 


ARMENIA. 


ing  usually  considered  as  half  Franks  by  their  more 
Eastern  brethren.  Their  churches  bear  a  great  resem- 
blance to  those  of  other  Catholics,  but  they  retain  their 
own  language  in  their  ritual,  with  many  of  the  forms 
and  ceremonies  of  the  Oriental  Church.  The  Arme- 
nian Patriarch,  with  his  long  beard,  and  crown  instead 
of  a  mitre,  is  one  of  the  picturesque  figures  to  whom 
attention  is  drawn  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Holy  Week 
at  Rome,  where  there  is  a  college  for  the  education  of 
priests  of  their  nation.  They  have  another  college  at 
Constantinople,  and  several  handsome  churches ;  but 
the  most  important  establishment  of  this  branch  of 
their  religion  is  that  of  the  convent  or  monastery  on 


the  island  of  St.  Lazarus,  near  Venice. 

This  society,  as  they  themselves  call  it,  was  founded 
by  Mechitar,  an  Armenian,  who  was  born  at  Sebaste, 
in  Lesser  Armenia,  in  1676.  He  received  holy  orders 
from  the  Bishop  Ananias,  superior  of  the  convent  of 
the  Holy  Cross,  near  Sebaste.  He  afterward  studied 
in  the  convent  of  Passen,  near  Erzeroom,  and  at  an- 
other on  the  island  on  Lake  Van.  His  wish  was  to 
remain  in  the  great  monastery  of  Etchmiazin,  to  which 
place  he  traveled,  but,  finding  no  opportunities  of  study 
at  the  seat  of  the  Patriarch,  he  proceeded  to  Constanti- 
nople, where  he  afterward  founded  a  small  society,  of 
a  monastic  kind,  at  Pera,  in  the  year  1700. 

In  the  year  1708  he  established  a  church  and  mo- 
nastic society  at  Modon  in  the  Morea,  then  under  the 
government  of  Venice ;  but  the  Turks  having  taken 
that  place,  his  companions  were  made  prisoners  and 
sold  for  slaves.  He,  with  some  others,  escaped  to  Ven- 
ice, where  he  received  a  grant,  in  the  year  1717,  from 


MONASTERY   OF   ST.  LAZARO.  207 

the  Signory,  of  a  small  deserted  island  in  the  Lagmies, 
originally  the  property  of  the  Benedictine  order,  who 
established  a  hospital  for  lepers  there  in  1180.  In 
this  island  he  set  up  a  printing-press  about  the  year 
1730,  for  the  production  of  Armenian  religious  books ; 
and  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  convent  in- 
crease in  comfort,  wealth,  and  respectability  before  his 
death,  which  took  place  on  the  27th  of  April,  1749. 

So  high  was  the  character  of  this  establishment  for 
usefulness  and  good  conduct,  that  in  1810,  when  oth- 
er monastic  establishments  were  suppressed  at  Venice, 
the  abbot  of  St.  Lazaro  received  a  peculiar  decree, 
granting  him  and  his  community  all  the  privileges  of 
their  former  independence.  So  high  also  has  been  the 
character  of  this  society  since  that  time,  that  it  has 
been  usual  for  the  Pope  to  confer  upon  each  new  abbot 
the  title  and  dignity  of  Archbishop,  although  he  has  no 
province  or  bishops  under  him.  The  service  they  have 
rendered  to  their  countrymen  is  very  great :  they  have 
at  present  five  printing-presses,  from  whence  every 
year  proceed  numerous  volumes  of  religious  and  his- 
torical character,  as  well  as  school-books,  and  a  news- 
paper in  the  Armenian  language.  These  are  mostly 
sold  at  Constantinople,  and  among  the  scattered  soci- 
eties of  their  nation.  The  funds  produced  from  this 
source  enable  them  to  establish  a  considerable  school 
or  college  at  Venice,  and  to  send  literary  missionaries, 
as  they  may  be  called,  to  collect  manuscripts  and  his- 
torical notices  among  the  barren  mountains  of  Arme- 
nia. Of  these  they  make  good  use,  compiling,  from 
imperfect  and  mutilated  fragments,  authentic  histories 
of  their  country ;  printing  the  almost  hitherto  lost  and 


208  ARMENIA. 


unknown  works  of  ancient  Armenian  authors,  and  dis- 
tributing copies  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  among  their 
brethren  in  the  wasted  and  benighted  land  of  their  fa- 
thers. 

They  printed  the  Armenian  Bible  in  the  year  1805 ; 
and,  entirely  by  their  energy,  the  small  spark  which 
alone  glimmered  in  the  darkness  of  Armenian  igno- 
rance in  the  East  has  gradually  increased  its  light  into 
a  feeble  ray,  which  now,  seen  faintly  through  the  mist, 
draws  every  now  and  then  the  attention  of  some  one 
endowed  by  nature  with  more  intelligence  than  the 
rest,  and  incites  him  to  inquire  into  those  truths  the 
rumors  of  whose  existence  had  only  reached  him  hith- 
erto. Slowly  enough,  but  we  trust  surely,  the  good 
work  prospers :  when  curiosity  and  interest  are  awak- 
ened, the  mind  turns  naturally  to  the  sources  from 
which  information  may  be  gained.  The  Holy  Gospels, 
the  New  Testament,  and,  in  some  places,  the  whole 
Bible,  may  now  be  procured  at  a  comparatively  trifling 
expense ;  the  leaven,  once  introduced,  sooner  or  later 
will  leaven  the  whole  mass ;  truth  and  common  sense 
will  dissipate  the  clouds  which  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion have  gathered  over  the  face  of  the  land,  and  the 
light  of  true  religion  will  arise  to  set  no  more. 


DIVISIONS    OF    THE    COUNTRY.  209 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Modern  division  of  Armenia. — Population. — Manners  and  Customs  of 
the  Christians. — Superiority  of  the  Mohammedans. 

The  country  which  was  called  Armenia  in  ancient 
times  is  now  divided  into  two  portions  ;  the  smaller  of 
the  two  belongs  to  Persia,  hut  the  larger  part  is  con- 
tained in  the  Turkish  province  or  pashalik  of  Erzeroom. 
It  does  not  possess  any  communication  with  the  sea, 
and  is  a  wild  and  mountainous  district.  Although  not 
of  any  high  importance  for  mercantile  productions,  it 
has  continually  been  an  object  of  jealousy  to  the  neigh- 
boring empires  of  Persia  and  Byzantmrr^^f^n  our 
time,  Persia  and  Turkey — from  the  high  road  between 
those  empires  necessarily  passing  through  it ;  thcpow- 
er  of  cutting  off  supplies,  and  permitting  the  passage 
of  caravans  laden  with  the  rich  productions  of  other 
lands,  being  vested  in  the  hands  of  the  military  gov- 
ernor of  Erzeroom.  The  number  of  inhabitants  of  this 
pashalik  is  estimated  at  1,000,000 ;  there  were  proba- 
bly more  in  earlier  times.  The  principal  cities  are — 
Erzeroom,  the  capital,  containing  about  30,000  souls. 
The  population  of  Kara  is  considered  to  be  about 
20,000,  Van  20,000,  Moosh  and  Beyboort  about  8000 
each.  The  Turkish  governor  of  the  pashalik  has  gen- 
erally an  armed  force  of  25,000  regular  soldiers  ;  but 
it  would  be  easy  for  him,  with  sufficient  funds,  to  raise 
a  more  considerable  force  of  irregular  cavalry,  and  in- 
fantry armed  with  rifles,  the  use  of  which  weapon  is 


2^0  ARMENIA. 


well  understood  by  the  hardy  mountaineers  and  hunt- 
ers, whose  manners  in  some  respects  resemble  those  of 
the  Tyrolese.  The  greater  half  of  the  population  are 
Mohammedan  Turks  or  Osmanlis,  followers  of  Osman. 
The  word  Turk  is  never  used  in  this  country,  and  is 
more  generally  applied  to  the  Turkomans  and  some  of 
the  tribes  on  the  Persian  border,  who  are  of  Calmuc  or 
Tartar  origin,  and  a  completely  different  sort  of  people 
from  those  whom  we  call  Turks.  The  Christian  pop- 
ulation consists  of  a  small  number  of  Greeks,  Nestori- 
ans,  and  Roman  Catholics,  the  greater  part  being  de- 
scendants of  the  ancient  possessors  of  the  soil,  and 
professing  the  Christianity  of  the  Armenian  Church, 
which  I  have  attempted  to  describe  above.  Their 
manners  and  customs  are  the  same  as  those  of  the 
Turks,  whom  they  copy  in  dress  and  in  their  general 
way  of  living  ;  so  much  is  this  the  case,  that  it  is  fre- 
quently difficult  to  distinguish  the  Turkish  from  the 
Armenian  family,  both  in  Armenia  and  at  Constanti- 
nople; only  the  Armenian  is  the  inferior  in  all  re- 
spects; he  would  be  called  in  China  a  second-chop 
Turk.  He  is  more  quick  and  restless  in  his  motions, 
and  wants  the  dignity  and  straightforward  bearing  of 
the  Osmanli.  More  than  100,000  Armenians  are  set- 
tled at  Constantinople.  These  are  not  so  ignorant,  and 
are,  even  in  appearance,  different  from  those  of  their 
original  country,  who  are  a  heavy  and  loutish  race, 
while  the  citizens  are  thin,  sharp,  active  in  money- 
making  arts,  and  remarkable  for  their  acuteness  in 
mercantile  transactions.  Each  Turkish  village  elects 
its  cadiy*a  sort  of  mayor ;  an  Armenian  Christian  vil- 
lage elects  its  elder,  who  is  called  the  Ak  Sakal,  or 


CUSTOMS.  211 


White  Beard ;  he  is  the  responsible  person  in  all  trans- 
actions with  government,  and  sometimes  holds  an  ar- 
duous post. 

The  women  live  in  a  harem,  like  the  Turkish  wom- 
en, separate  from  the  men.  The  mistress  of  the  house 
superintends  the  kitchen,  the  making  of  preserves,  and 
salting  winter  stores ;  they  wear  the  yashmak,  or  Turk- 
ish veil,  at  Constantinople,  where  the  Armenian  ladies 
are  celebrated  for  their  beauty,  and  their  fine  eyes, 
and  black,  arched  eyebrows.  In  Armenia,  the  women, 
when  they  go  out,  wrap  themselves  up  in  a  large  piece 
of  bunting,  the  same  kind  of  stuff  that  is  used  in  Eu- 
rope for  flags ;  being  of  wool,  it  takes  a  fine  color  in 
dyeing.  The  ample  wrappers  of  the  women  are  some- 
times of  a  bright  scarlet,  sometimes  a  brilliant  white 
or  blue.  The  effect  of  this  veil  is  much  more  pleasing 
than  those  of  Constantinople  or  Egypt.  The  Armeni- 
ans are  not  bad  cooks  :  some  of  their  dishes  are  excel- 
lent ;  one  of  mutton  stewed  with  quinces  leaves  a  very 
favorable  impression  on  the  recollection  of  the  hungry 
traveler.  The  country  people  live  underground  in  the 
peculiar  houses  which  I  have  described ;  they  are  an 
agricultural  peasantry,  tilling  the  ground,  and  not  pos- 
sessing large  herds  of  sheep  or  cattle,  like  the  Turk- 
omans, Koords,  or  Arabs;  they  are  a  heavy-looking 
race,  but  are  hardy  and  active,  and  inured  from  youth 
to  exercise  and  endurance,  but  even  in  these  respects 
they  are  excelled  by  the  Mohammedan  mountaineers. 

The  superiority  of  the  Mohammedan  over  the  Chris- 
tian can  not  fail  to  strike  the  mind  of  an  intelligent 
person  who  has  lived  among  these  races,  as  the  fact  is 
evident  throughout  the  Turkish  empire.     This  arises 


212  ARMENIA. 


partly  from  the  oppression  which  the  Turkish  rulers  in 
the  provinces  have  exercised  for  centuries  over  their 
Christian  subjects :  this  is  probably  the  chief  reason ; 
but  the  Turk  obeys  the  dictates  of  his  religion,  the  Chris- 
tian does  not;  the  Turk  does  not  drink,  the  Christian 
gets  drunk ;  the  Turk  is  honest,  the  Turkish  peasant  is 
a  pattern  of  quiet,  good-humored  honesty ;  the  Chris- 
tian is  a  liar  and  a  cheat ;  his  religion  is  so  overgrown 
with  the  rank  weeds  of  superstition  that  it  no  longer 
serves  to  guide  his  mind  in  the  right  way.  It  would 
be  a  work  of  great  difficulty  to  disentangle  the  pure 
faith  preached  by  the  Apostles  from  the  mass  of  absurd- 
ities and  strange  notions  with  which  Christianity  is 
encumbered,  in  the  belief  of  the  villagers  in  out-of-the- 
way  places,  among  the  various  sects  of  Christians  in 
the  dominions  of  the  Sultan.  This  seems  to  have  been 
the  case  for  many  centuries,  and  it  has  produced  its 
effect  in  lowering  the  standard  of  morality,  and  injur- 
ing the  general  character  of  those  nations  who  are  sub- 
jects of  Turkey  and  not  of  the  Mohammedan  religion. 
For,  of  two  evils,  it  is  better  to  follow  the  doctrines  of 
a  false  religion  than  to  neglect  the  precepts  of  the  true 
faith. 


ARMENIAN   MANUSCRIPTS.  213 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Armenian  Manuscripts. — Manuscripts  at  Etchmiazin. — Comparative 
Value  of  Manuscripts. — Uncial  Writing. — Monastic  Libraries. — Col- 
lections in  Europe. — The  St.  Lazaro  Library. 

Armenian  manuscripts  are  of  extreme  rarity,  not 
only  in  Europe,  but  in  Armenia  itself,  at  Constantino- 
ple, or  any  other  place.  The  unsettled  state  in  which 
that  distracted  province  has  from  time  immemorial 
been  sunk,  has  prevented  the  development  of  the  peace- 
ful arts,  and  few  of  the  monastic  establishments  of  that 
country  had  wealth,  or  leisure,  or  convenience  to  copy 
and  illuminate  their  books.  The  few  fine  manuscripts 
which  I  have  met  with  seem  to  have  been  written  for 
some  Armenian  princes,  and  were  the  works  of  scribes 
supported  by  exalted  personages,  who  wrote  under  the 
shadow  of  their  protection  in  the  metropolitan  cities, 
or  in  the  patriarchal  monastery  of  Etchmiazin.  I  was 
prevented  by  illness  when  in  the  neighborhood  from 
visiting  Etchmiazin,  but  there  are  preserved  (or  rather 
neglected)  there,  I  have  been  given  to  understand, 
more  than  2000  ancient  manuscripts.  These  are  com- 
pletely unknown,  unless  within  these  few  years  they 
have  been  examined  by  any  Russian  antiquarian ;  no 
other  traveler  has  been  there  who  was  competent  to 
overlook  a  dusty  library,  so  as  to  give  any  idea,  not  of 
what  there  is,  but  even  what  it  may  be  likely  to  con- 
tain. This,  as  my  bibliographical  friends  are  well 
aware,  is  a  peculiar  art  or  mystery  depending  more  on 


214  ARMENIA. 


a  general  knowledge  of  the  first  aspect  of  an  old  book 
than  a  capacity  to  appreciate  its  contents.  A  book 
written  on  vellum  implies  a  certain  antiquity  immedi- 
ately recognizable  by  the  initiated.  If  it  does  not  ap- 
pear to  be  ancient,  it  is  then  more  than  probable  that 
it  contains  the  works  of  some  author  of  more  than  or- 
dinary consideration,  to  have  made  it  worth  while  to 
go  to  the  expense  and  labor  of  a  careful  scribe  and  a 
material  difficult  in  those  days  to  procure.  An  illu- 
minated manuscript  on  vellum,  if  not  a  prayer-book, 
secures  additional  attention ;  independent  of  its  value 
as  a  work  of  art,  it  must  be  of  some  consequence  to 
have  made  it  worth  illuminating.  A  large  manuscript, 
as  a  general  rule,  is  worth  more  than  a  little  one,  for 
the  same  evident  reason  that  its  contents  were  consid- 
ered at  the  time  when  it  was  written  to  have  been  of 
some  importance,  and  deserving  of  more  labor,  time, 
and  care,  than  if  it  was  just  written  out  cheaply  by  a 
common  scribe.  Uncial  writing,  thatis.  a  book  writ- 
ten in  capital  letters — is  much  more  ancient  than  one 
written  in  a  cursive  hand,  and  the  most  ancient  vol- 
umes were  generally  large  square  quartos.  It  is  curi- 
ous that  this  should  be  the  case  in  almost  all  nations 
and  languages  surrounding  the  Mediterranean,  though 
their  customs  may  be  so  different  in  other  respects. 
Manuscripts  on  paper,  again,  are  sometimes  of  remark- 
able interest,  from  their  containing  the  works  of  authors 
then  considered  trivial  and  inferior,  but  now  of  much 
more  value  than  the  more  ponderous  tomes  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages. 

The  majority  of  the  volumes  in  an  ancient  monastic 
library  are  worn-out,  imperfect  church-books,  which 


MANUSCRIPTS.  215 


have  been  cast  aside  from  time  to  time,  and  committed 
to  the  care  of  the  mice  and  spiders,  who  alone  frequent 
the  shelves  or  the  floor  of  that  dusty  lumber-room.  It 
is  uncommon  to  find  a  manuscript  in  more  than  one 
volume,  unless  it  may  be  the  works  of  St.  Chrysostom, 
or  another  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church.  In  this  case 
the  volumes  are  hardly  ever  found  together,  and  a  com- 
plete set  of  three  or  four  volumes  is  beyond  hoping 
for,  carelessness  and  neglect  having  been  for  centuries 
the  librarians  of  the  monastery.  These  and  other  cir- 
cumstances combine  to  make  a  cursory  examination 
of  one  of  these  original  hoards  of  by-gone  literature  a 
task  for  which  the  learned  student  of  some  abstruse 
science,  or  dead  or  dying  language,  is  totally  incompe- 
tent. The  translator  of  an  almost  forgotten  tongue, 
the  laborious  compiler  of  unpublished  history,  requires 
that  the  musty  chronicles,  the  splendid  illuminated  vol- 
umes bound  in  gold  and  velvet,  the  crabbed,  ill- written 
works  of  antique  lore,  should  be  laid  upon  the  table 
before  him,  so  that,  in  the  undisturbed  silence  of  his 
study,  surrounded  with  lexicons  and  modern  books  of 
reference,  he  may  bit  by  bit  extract  the  pith,  and  win- 
now off  the  chaff,  from  the  venerable  manuscripts  of 
distant  lands  and  other  times.  The  bibliographical 
traveler,  who  is  to  provide  these  precious  relics  for  his 
careful  use,  who  is  to  drag  them  from  their  dark  re- 
cesses, where  they  have  been  lying  undisturbed  500  or 
1000  years,  has  an  entirely  different  task  to  fulfill. 
The  professor  would  require  months  to  look  over  each 
book  one  by  one,  to  brush  away  the  cobwebs,  to  ascer- 
tain by  difficult  and  uncertain  passages  what  the  sub- 
ject of  those  manuscripts  might  be  which  had  lost 


216  ARMENIA. 


many  pages  at  the  beginning  and  end,  and  to  satisfy 
himself  at  last  that  it  was  worthless — a  conclusion  to 
which  another  would  arrive  at  the  first  glance.  This 
power  of  immediately  appreciating  the  value  of  ancient 
manuscripts  in  the  manner  above  mentioned  will  be 
understood  by  those  who  are  aware  that  such  is  the 
usual  jealousy  of  the  ignorant  monks  for  that  which 
they  can  neither  use  nor  understand  themselves,  that 
it  hardly  ever  happens  that  a  stranger  is  permitted  to 
take  more  than  a  general  survey  of  the  worm-eaten 
and  dusty  mass  which  lies  in  heaps  upon  the  floor,  or 
is  piled  in  the  corners  of  the  room  which  they  call  their 
library,  but  which  they  probably  have  never  entered 
on  any  other  occasion. 

Such  as  I  have  described  are  the  libraries  at  Etch- 
miazin,  the  monastery  on  Lake  Van,  those  near  Ooroo- 
mia,  and  the  few  places  where  more  than  the  church- 
books  are  still  remaining. 

In  England,  the  Bodleian  Library  contains  about 
twenty  volumes  of  Armenian  manuscripts ;  the  British 
Museum  not  so  many,  I  believe ;  the  Royal  Library 
at  Paris  has  about  200,  which  were  collected  by  the 
emissaries  of  Louis  XIV.  Some  of  these  are  of  consid- 
erable antiquity  and  beauty.  In  private  collections 
very  few  are  to  be  found.  In  my  library  there  are 
about  a  dozen,  of  which  two  are  the  most  splendid  that 
I  have  met  with  in  the  East,  or  in  any  country.  I 
possess  also  a  number  of  loose  leaves  of  the  highest 
antiquity,  which  are  so  far  curious  that  they  display 
the  progress  of  the  art  of  writing  almost  since  the  days 
of  Mesrob  to  the  present  time.  But,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  unknown  treasures  of  Etchmiazin,  the  con- 


MANUSCRIPTS.  217 

vent  of  St.  Lazaro  at  Venice  not  only  preserves,  but 
makes  good  use  of,  the  finest  collection  of  Armenian 
manuscripts  extant.  Their  number  is  about  1200,  of 
which  100  are  on  vellum ;  the  rest  are  written  partly 
on  ancient  paper  made  from  cotton,  and  partly  on  paper 
such  as  we  use  at  present.  Three  volumes  on  Charta 
Bombycina  are  among  the  most  ancient  that  I  have 
met  with  that  are  written  on  that  material :  one  con- 
tains commentaries  on  the  Psalms  and  the  Epistles,  by 
Ephraim  Syrius  and  St.  Chrysostom,  written  in  the 
year  of  the  Armenian  era  448,  Anno  Domini  999  ;  the 
second  is  a  small  book  of  prayer,  containing  the  date 
of  A.  D.  1178 ;  the  third  is  the  romance  of  Alexander 
the  G-reat :  this  curious  volume  is  illustrated  with  nu- 
merous drawings,  richly  gilt  and  colored  ;  it  was  writ- 
ten in  the  thirteenth  century. 

They  have  three  copies  of  the  Gospels,  and  one  Rit- 
ual written  in  uncial  letters  (one  of  these  ancient  cop- 
ies of  the  Gospels  is  illuminated  with  several  large 
miniatures  in  a  style  resembling  Greek  art),  as  well 
as  several  others  of  inferior  interest. 

The  library  also  possesses  six  or  seven  richly  illu- 
minated copies  of  the  Scriptures,  some  splendid  books  of 
prayer,  and  a  great  number  of  other  Armenian  manu- 
scripts, containing  records  of  the  history  or  the  works 
of  authors  who  were  natives  of  that  country,  from 
which  have  been  printed  many  volumes  whose  pages 
illustrate  manners  and  events  which  were  completely 
forgotten  before  the  monks  of  St.  Lazaro  rescued  them 
from  oblivion. 

K 


218  ARMENIA. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

General  History  of  Armenia. — Former  Sovereigns. — Tiridates  I.  re- 
ceives his  Crown  from  Nero. — Conquest  of  the  Country  by  the  Per- 
sians and  by  the  Arabs. — List  of  modern  Kings. — Misfortunes  of 
Leo  V. :  his  Death  at  Paris. 

The  general  history  of  Armenia  contains  but  little 
that  is  interesting.  It  presents  the  picture  of  a  line 
of  sovereigns  who  have  seldom  been  able  to  support 
their  own  authority,  and  who  have  constantly  abdi- 
cated, embraced  monastic  vows,  or  been  driven  from 
the  throne  by  rebellions  of  their  subjects,  and  invasions 
of  neighboring  conquerors  more  talented  and  more 
powerful  than  themselves.  Many  of  the  Armenian 
kings  seem  to  have  lived  almost  on  the  charity  of  oth- 
er states;  the  lines  of  their  dynasties  have  been  so 
often  interrupted,  and  the  changes  from  kings  to  gov- 
ernors, dukes,  and  counts  have  been  so  frequent,  that 
their  history  is  most  intricate ;  and,  from  the  bound- 
aries of  the  so-called  kingdom  of  Armenia  having  nev- 
er been  the  same  for  many  years  together,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  understand  from  the  scattered  notices  which 
history  has  transmitted  to  us  who  should  be  consider- 
ed as  the  head  of  the  state,  or  which  of  the  many  vas- 
sal princes,  under  the  great  empires  of  the  East,  has 
the  better  claim  to  the  title  of  sovereign  of  this  ancient 
kingdom. 

At  the  time  of  our  Savior,  Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa, 
seems  to  have  exercised  sovereignty  over  great  part  of 


FORMER   SOVEREIGNS.  219 

Armenia,  on  the  southern  and  western  sides.  Tirida- 
tes  I.  is  the  first  person  styling  himself  King  of  Arme- 
nia after  this  period.  He  conquered  the  country  from 
Rhadamistus,  by  the  assistance  of  his  brother  Vologe- 
ses,  King  of  Parthia.  The  Romans,  however,  who  did 
not  approve  of  the  erection  of  an  independent  kingdom 
in  those  regions,  sent  an  army  against  Tiridates,  com- 
manded by  Corbulo,  who  forced  Tiridates  to  abdicate, 
on  condition  of  his  proceeding  to  Rome  to  receive  his 
crown  from  the  hands  of  the  Emperor  Nero.  He  was 
received  with  the  highest  honors  by  the  Roman  em- 
peror, who  advanced  as  far  as  Naples  to  meet  him. 
Tiridates  won  his  good  graces  by  the  artful  manner  in 
which  he  nattered  Nero  on  his  skill  in  driving  a  char- 
iot. They  became  great  friends :  the  Armenian  king  i 
received  large  sums  of  money  from  the  emperor,  with 
which  he  returned  to  his  own  country,  and  repaired  his 
dismantled  fortresses.  He  changed  the  name  of  his 
capital  from  Artaxarte  to  Neronia,  in  compliment  to 
his  imperial  protector,  and  died  in  the  year  75  A.D., 
after  a  reign  of  eleven  years. 

To  him  succeeded  several  princes  who  were  vassals 
to  the  Roman  empire,  but  whose  actions  do  not  seem 
to  offer  any  thing  of  interest.  Tiridates  II  had  re- 
ceived his  education  at  Rome,  and,  assisted  by  the  em- 
peror, he  was  placed  upon  the  throne  of  Armenia,  by 
the  general  consent  of  the  nobles  of  his  country,  in  259. 
He,  as  I  have  mentioned  in  the  ecclesiastical  sketch 
of  this  history,  embraced  Christianity,  and  died  in  the 
year  314.  Other  unimportant  princes  succeeded,  among 
whom  John  Nustaron  governed  Armenia,  under  the 
Emperor  Mam-ice.     The  Persians  conquered  the  coun- 


220  ARMENIA. 


try  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Phocas,  but  it  was 
soon  retaken  by  Heraclius.  Pasagnates  revolted 
against  the  Emperor  Constantine  II.,  who  defeated 
him,  and  placed  Sabarius,  a  Persian,  on  the  throne, 
who  also  rebelled,  and  was  beat  in  the  year  658.  Jus- 
tinian II.  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Caliph  Abdol- 
malek,  by  which  the  two  sovereigns  divided  between 
them  the  revenues  of  Armenia,  Iberia,  and  Cyprus ; 
and  the  same  emperor,  Justinian  II.,  placed  Sablas  on 
the  Armenian  throne.  This  prince,  being  established 
in  this  mountainous  kingdom,  organized  an  army,  and, 
having  attempted  to  extricate  his  country  from  the 
power  of  the  Caliph,  was  defeated  by  him  in  687,  and 
the  Arabs  became  masters  of  Armenia.  The  Empe- 
ror Constantine  Copronymus  retook  this  province,  and 
established  Paulus  as  viceroy.  Paulus  was  conquer- 
ed by  the  forces  of  the  Caliph,  but  he  afterward  re-es- 
tablished himself  upon  the  throne. 

After  his  reign,  Armenia  was  governed  by  several 
dukes  and  counts,  some  of  whom  ruled  over  a  larger, 
and  some  over  a  smaller,  portion  of  the  country.  Dur- 
ing this  period  constant  battles  and  disturbances  took 
place  between  the  adherents  of  the  caliphs  and  the 
Christian  emperors  in  this  distracted  province.  The 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople  made  every  endeavor  to 
break  down  the  religious  subjection  of  the  Armenians 
to  their  heretical  Patriarch.  But  the  history  of  the 
numerous  princes  who  succeeded  each  other,  after  pe- 
riods of  short  and  doubtful  power,  on  the  throne  of 
parts  only  of  Armenia,  is  so  complicated  and  so  doubt- 
ful, that  I  shall  not  attempt  to  speak  of  them,  and  pro- 
ceed to  the  time  of  the  first  generally  acknowledged 


MODERN   KINGS.  221 

king  of  modern  times.  The  name  of  this  monarch 
was 

Philaretes  Branchance.  After  resisting  the  forces 
of  the  Emperor  Michael  Ducas,  he  submitted  to  his 
successor,  Mcephorus  Botoniates,  by  whom  he  was 
supported  through  the  rest  of  his  reign.  He  flourish- 
ed about  the  year  1080. 

Constantine  was  succeeded  by  his  brother 

Taphroc,  or  Taphnuz.  Under  these  two  sovereigns 
appear  numerous  petty  princes,  who  were  feudatories 
to  the  King. 

Leo,  who  was  long  a  prisoner  under  the  Turks,  lived 
in  1131. 

Theodorus,  or  Thoros,  after  a  stormy  reign,  died  in 
1170. 

Thomas,  son  of  the  sister  of  Thoros. 

Milo,  brother  of  Thoros.  Under  this  reign  the 
power  of  the  Knights  Templars  was  formidable.  They 
had  acquired  large  possessions  in  Armenia ;  and  their 
numerous  preceptories  were  in  fact  fortified  castles, 
from  which  they  defied  the  power  of  their  suzerain. 
Milo  waged  war  with  the  Templars,  and  succeeded  in 
banishing  many  of  their  followers  from  his  dominions. 
He  died  in  1180. 

Rupinus  was  made  prisoner  by  Bohemond,  Prince 
of  Antioch.     He  died  in  1189. 

Leo  I.,  or  Livon,  concluded  a  treaty,  by  which  he 
freed  Armenia  from  the  tribute  which  it  had  paid  to 
the  Prince  of  Antioch,  instead  of  which  he  voluntarily 
paid  homage  to  the  Pope  Celestinus  III.  He  lived  in 
perpetual  war  with  the  formidable  body  of  Knights 
Templars,  with  various  success,'  and  died  in  1219. 


222 


ARMENIA. 


Isabel,  daughter  of  Leo.  In  the  reign  of  this  prin- 
cess the  kingdom  of  Armenia  became  tributary  to  the 
Turkish  Sultans  of  Iconium. 

Alton,  or  Otho,  sent  embassadors  to  St.  Louis,  King 
of  France,  in  the  island  of  Cyprus.  He  made  a  visit 
to  Mangou,  Khan  of  Tartary,  whom  he  converted  to 
Christianity,  and  in  alliance  with  whom,  assisted  by 
his  brother,  Houlagou  Khan,  he  made  war  against  the 
Mohammedans,  and,  having  destroyed  the  castles  of 
the  Assassins,  penetrated  into  the  dominions  of  the  Sul- 
tan of  Aleppo,  their  further  progress  being  stopped  by 
the  death  of  Mangou  Khan,  which  occasioned  the  re- 
turn of  Houlagou  to  his  own  country.  The  Saracens 
or  Mohammedans,  on  this  change  of  affairs,  in  their 
turn  overran  Armenia,  where  they  committed  dreadful 
cruelties ;  and  Aiton,  having  abdicated  the  crown  in 
1270,  retired  into  a  monastery,  under  the  name  of  Ma- 
carius,  where  he  died  in  the  year  1272. 

Leo,  the  son  of  Aiton,  mounted  the  throne  of  his  fa- 
ther in  1270,  and  was  in  constant  war  with  Bondochar, 
Sultan  of  Egypt,  who  massacred  20,000  persons  in  Ar- 
menia. He  was  excommunicated  for  outrages  com- 
mitted upon  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch.  After  a  reign 
of  trouble  and  disaster,  he  died  in  1288. 

Aiton,  or  Otho  II,  the  son  of  Leo,  with  many  of  his 
nation,  embraced  the  Roman  faith,  and  demanded  the 
assistance  of  Pope  Boniface  VIII.  against  the  infi- 
dels who  menaced  his  power.  No  effective  assistance 
having  been  afforded  him,  he  abdicated  the  throne, 
took  the  habit  of  a  Capuchin  friar,  and,  under  the  name 
of  Brother  John,  died  in  the  year  1294. 

Thoros,  or  Theodorus,  despairing  of  success  against 


MODERN   KINGS.  333 

the  incursions  of  the  neighboring  nations,  also  became 
a  Capuchin  friar.     He  died  in  1296. 

Sembat,  or  Penibald,  the  brother  of  Aiton  and  Tho- 
ros,  usurped  the  throne  in  the  absence  of  his  brothers ; 
he  was  dethroned  by  another  brother,  Constantine,  and 
died  in  1298. 

Constantine  sent  his  remaining  brothers  to  Constan- 
tinople, with  a  recommendation  to  the  Emperor  to  take 
care  of  them.     The  year  of  his  death  is  uncertain. 

Leo  III.  was  murdered  in  the  year  1307. 

Chir  Ossim,  with  the  assistance  of  Pope  John  XXII., 
made  an  advantageous  truce  or  treaty  with  the  Kings 
of  Sicily  and  Cyprus,  with  whom  he  was  at  war.  This 
was  accomplished  through  the  mediation  of  the  Gen- 
oese, who  at  this  time  appear  to  have  been  the  prin- 
cipal traders  in  Constantinople,  Persia,  and  Armenia. 
He  died  in  1320. 

Leo  IV.  lived  in  continual  war  with  the  Saracens. 
This  king  sent  embassadors  to  Philippe  de  Valois,  King 
of  France,  to  beg  assistance  against  the  incursions  of  the 
Saracens.  He  married  first  Constancia,  daughter  of 
Frederick,  King  of  Sicily,  and  secondly  the  daughter  of 
the  Prince  of  Tarentum,  niece  to  Robert,  King  of  Na- 
ples. Having  provoked  the  jealousy  of  his  countrymen 
by  promoting  numerous  Frenchmen  to  high  offices  of 
government,  he  was  assassinated  in  the  year  1344. 

After  his  death  Guy  de  Lusignan  was  elected  King 
of  Armenia.     He  died  in  1344. 

Constans,  or  Constantius,  apparently  his  son,  suc- 
ceeded Guy  de  Lusignan,  and  was  killed  by  the  Sara- 
cens in  1351.  He  had  dispatched  embassadors  to 
implore  assistance  against  the  infidels  to  the  courts 


224  ARMENIA. 


of  the  Pope,  the  King  of  England,  and  the  King  of 
France. 

Constantine,  the  next  king,  appears  to  have  lived  in 
continual  troubles  with  his  own  subjects,  as  well  as  in 
constant  alarm  at  the  increasing  inroads  of  the  neigh- 
boring powers  on  both  sides.  The  annals  of  his  stormy 
reign  are  almost  silent,  and  it  is  not  known  when  he 
died.  To  such  a  state  of  misery  and  confusion  was 
the  kingdom  of  Armenia  now  reduced,  that  the  exist- 
ence of  another  king,  who  was  probably  his  successor, 
is  only  known  by  the  witness  of  a  rare  coin,  which 
bears  as  legend  drago  .  rex  .  armen  .  agapi.  In  the 
year  1368  the  nobles  of  Armenia  elected  Peter  I.,  King 
of  Cyprus,  king ;  but  he  was  at  Rome  at  that  period, 
and  never  took  possession  of  his  precarious  honor. 

The  records  of  the  Armenian  sovereigns  are  now 
drawing  to  a  close.  About  this  period,  Leo  V.,  of  the 
family  of  Lusignan,  was  seated  on  his  trembling  throne. 
He  was  famous  only  for  his  misfortunes.  Menaced  on 
every  side,  his  provinces  and  castles,  one  by  one,  fell 
before  the  victorious  inroads  of  the  Turks.  The  Gen- 
oese alone,  who,  in  pursuit  of  trade,  had  fortified  many 
strong  places  in  Armenia,  held  out  gallantly  against 
the  common  foe,  and  the  Mohammedan  invaders  were 
unable  to  gain  possession  of  the  town  of  Curco,  or  Co- 
ry cus,  in  Cilicia,  which  was  defended  by  the  soldiers 
of  the  intrepid  merchants.  After  a  constant  series  of 
disasters  and  defeats,  the  unhappy  king  escaped  with 
his  life  to  the  island  of  Cyprus,  from  whence  he  passed 
to  Italy,  and  afterward  to  Castile,  where  he  implored 
in  vain  for  assistance  from  those  Christian  princes  to 
reinstate  him  in  the  kingdom  of  his  ancestors,  which 


DEATH   OF   LEO   V.  225 

had  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  infidel,  and  which, 
from  that  period  to  the  present  day,  has  continued  to 
form  one  of  the  great  pashaliks,  or  provinces  of  the 
Turkish  empire.  From  Castile  he  took  refuge  in 
France,  where  he  was  received  with  distinguished  fa- 
vor and  hospitality  by  King  Charles  V.,  who  assigned 
for  his  residence  the  hotel  of  St.  Ouen,  near  St.  Denis. 
About  the  year  1378  Leo  passed  over  to  England,  in 
the  hopes  of  effecting  peace  between  King  Richard  II. 
and  the  King  of  France,  with  whom  he  was  then  at 
war,  and  inducing  the  two  sovereigns  to  embark  in  a 
crusade  against  the  Turks  for  the  recovery  of  the  Holy 
Land,  and  for  his  own  restoration  to  his  kingdom.  His 
overtures,  like  all  his  other  acts,  were  unsuccessful; 
but  from  Richard,  King  of  England,  he  received  mag- 
nificent presents,  and  a  pension  of  20,000  marcs,  which 
munificence  was  imitated  by  the  King  of  France  in  an 
annual  allowance  of  6000  livres. 

Leo,  King  of  Armenia,  was  of  small  stature,  but  of 
intelligent  expression  and  well-formed  features.  He 
lived  in  great  magnificence, .  being  richer  from  the 
presents  of  the  Christian  monarchs  than  he  had  been 
in  his  own  beleaguered  kingdom.  The  last  of  his  royal 
line,  he  died,  leaving  no  successor,  at  Paris,  in  the  year 
1393.  His  body  was  carried  to  the  tomb  clothed  in 
royal  robes  of  white,  according  to  the  custom  of  Arme- 
nia, with  an  open  crown  upon  his  head  and  a  golden 
sceptre  in  his  hand.  He  lay  in  state  upon  an  open 
bier  hung  with  white,  and  surrounded  by  the  officers 
of  his  household,  clothed  all  of  them  in  white  robes. 
He  was  buried  by  the  high  altar  of  the  church  of  the 
C destines,  where  his  effigy  was  to  be  seen  upon  a 
K2 


226  ARMENIA. 


black  marble  tomb  under  an  archway  in  the  wall,  and 
on  the  tomb  was  written 

<Ht2  fifst  le  tres  noole  ct  tres  excellent  $rfnce,  SLjon  toe  SLusfg* 
nan,  qufnt  3&oi  3Latfn  tou  a&ogaulme  ti'&rmenfe,  qui  rentoft 
Tame  a  31teu  a  $arfs  le  rrfr.  Jour  toe  Wobembre,  I'an  toe  6Jrace 
mcccrcfff. 


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